What is Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)Â became law in 1990. The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public. The purpose of the law is to make sure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.
How does is apply to design?
One major concern for users with poor vision is the amount of contrast between the text and the background color on which it is placed. To test ADA compliance, developers created the Wave Tool. Unfortunately this tool comes with its issues and often flags text as ADA incompliant when text is placed on a background color with anything less that 100% opacity (transparency). I've attached some examples below to illustrate both acceptable and unacceptable forms of type placement by the Wave Tools standards.