Hello,
I work with a federal public health agency, and we are hoping to use kobotoolbox to gather information at sites around the US. We are required by Section 508 to provide documentation and website/online content that is accessible to people with disabilities.
This form will be used by teams in several different regions of the country. Some of these teams may need to allow users to input information via tablet. We also must provide the users with a final summary of the form after it is complete, which is saved as a pdf and emailed or printed. I built our form with the grid theme because it saves space and is easier for people to read, print, and use in general.
The first 508 issue with this theme is that the default orange color for headers, bullets, buttons, etc. is difficult for people with visual disabilities to see because there is not enough contrast between the two colors. We aim for a 4.5:1 or greater contrast ratio.
The current color, #CE4F07, fails a standard color contrast analyser test (example attached.) However, if we use an alternate version of this color, #C94F09, for example, it passes the test. (attached.) Simply cloning the current grid theme and changing the color of the accents of this form will fix the issue. Offering a plain black & light gray version would be ideal, but even a slight change to the existing theme’s css would work!
The second 508 issue is that when saved as a pdf, the formatting and meta information disappears, and the form does not pass an accessibility check run in Adobe Acrobat (attached). Section 508 outlines requirements for providing an accessible pdf form, and many of these fixes are relatively simple to implement by updating the existing theme to meet WC3 standards.
These features are useful to anyone who wishes to provide their users with the best possible experience, and especially useful to those in the health or education fields. More importantly, it will help increase the usability and accessibility of the form to a wider range of people.
Thank you for your consideration!
