Visual impairment includes a broad spectrum of disabilities from low vision to colour blindness. These users might not use Assistive Technologies like screen readers but do have issues that could affect their ability to interpret information contained in images. Your designer has already gone to considerable effort to ensure that your site is accessible for the visually impaired, so a bit of extra effort when creating your image content is quite simple.
Your designer has put a lot of effort into creating Cascading Style Sheets that are accessible or can be made accessible by using special controls. Generally these controls are included in an Accessibility Toolbar at the top of your content. You paid for the designer’s expertise and attention to detail in creating this. If you declare colours in your content editing, your designer’s efforts could be undermined and result in reduced accessibility and non compliance.
Only use custom styles, not the colour palette, for content that must be accessible. The custom styles have been created with alternate values to compensate for low vision and colour impairment. The default colour palette tool will override settings in your accessibility toolbar reducing its effectiveness. If you need additional styles contact your designer or SiteCM support. Styles can be declared for table cells, text, and many other uses.
Changing colours for decorative purposes might seem like a small issue but has an impact on accessibility for the visually impaired.
When using the custom styles to highlight text, don’t rely only on colour to highlight content. The use of bold text also emphasizes the content and increases accessibility for some users who have issues with colour.
Text is key for all of your site users whether or not they have disabilities. Your designer has carefully selected accessible styles and colours so it is best to use the default styles. Adding additional text characteristics can negatively affect compliance and reduce accessibility.