Color Contrast Ratio Requirements

Contrast and color use are important to creating accessible web and digital content. Federal law and systemwide policy defines the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA as the current standard we follow for web and digital platforms (including social media, newsletters, presentations, videos, course materials, etc.). The vice chancellor for Student Affairs has requested that we begin aligning with accessibility standards starting fall 2025 to ensure a smoother transition and broader compliance.

The success criterion requires normal text to have a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 or greater and larger/bold text to have a contrast ratio of 3:1 or greater. WCAG has the following definitions for large text size.

Checking Color Contrast

Siteimprove has an online color contrast checking tool that can help you calculate the contrast ratio between two web HEX colors and whether the contrast meets WCAG 2.1, Level AA success criterion.

Campus Color Accessibility Options

Since Student Affairs units have permission to utilize the secondary color palette in their communications with students, we have calculated the contrast between black, white and all the campus colors to provide a quick reference for accessible color combination pairs. Under each color, the accessible colors are listed in descending order with the highest contrast at the top. Acceptable color pairs can be used interchangeably as either background and text colors since the contrast ration remains the same. For large and/or bolded text, make sure to follow the WCAG minimum font size guidelines for the content to be accessible.