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Warning: I ignored a color contrast rule for a client in Portland and it backfired

My friend Sam, who has low vision, told me the blue and gray buttons on a site I designed last fall didn't have enough contrast. I argued it looked clean and modern, so I shipped it anyway. The client's feedback form got flooded with complaints from users who couldn't see the main call-to-action, and I had to redo the whole palette in a week. Has anyone else had a client project where ignoring basic accessibility advice caused a real problem?
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3 Comments
joel280
joel2801mo agoMost Upvoted
You argued with a user who has low vision about their own needs. That's a wild level of professional arrogance to start with. No wonder it blew up in your face.
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the_terry
the_terry17d ago
Honestly, you argued with the one person who literally couldn't see your design properly, and then acted surprised when other people couldn't see it either. That's like me telling a patient their tooth doesn't hurt and then being shocked when they need a root canal a week later. I bet that blue and gray combo looked real clean when you were staring at it from two feet away on your fancy monitor though.
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oscarwilliams
Reminds me of a dev who ignored alt text like joel280 mentioned and got sued.
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