Why Color Alone Can't Signal Pass/Fail Status
A dashboard shows a row of status icons for each metric — no border, no shape difference, just a subtle color shift between a "pass" green and a "fail" red fill.
Who does this color-only signal fail to reach, and why?
The correct answer is "Color-blind users and screen-reader users, since color alone conveys no perceivable difference to them."
Color as the only signal of state or meaning is invisible to color-blind users, who may not perceive the green/red difference as distinct at all, and to anyone relying on a screen reader, since color isn't part of the accessibility tree's announced information. The fix is pairing color with an icon, shape, or text change, so the status is perceivable through more than one channel.
This isn't limited to a small edge case of "very dark screens" — color-blindness affects a meaningful share of users regardless of display quality. It doesn't fail every sighted user outright — most sighted, non-color-blind users can distinguish the colors fine, which is exactly why the bug is easy to miss in a normal design review. It has nothing to do with the icon's file format.
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