Basics

Use default fonts and colors.

Content does not specify text characteristics or background color, and is not relying upon technology that changes those defaults.

Status

Platform

Web

Programming Language

How It Solves User Need

The objective of this method is to make sure that users can read text that is presented over a background. With this method the author avoids having to do any contrast measures by simply not specifying the text color and not specifying the background. As a result the colors of both are completely determined by the user agent.

Some people who have vision disabilities set their user agent to override certain colors that they have trouble seeing. This method will help avoid a situation where the user agent and web site conflict with each other over the foreground and/or background colors resulting in the same color for text and background, which would make it invisible for user who set their own colors in their browser or Assistive Technology.

Related Guidelines

Detailed Description

Use default fonts and colors.

Content does not specify text characteristics or background color, and is not relying upon technology that changes those defaults.

The author specifies neither text color nor background, and does not use CSS. As a result the user can set his browser defaults to provide the colors and contrasts that work well for them.

Related Methods

Code Samples

Use default fonts and colors.

Content does not specify text characteristics or background color, and is not relying upon technology that changes those defaults.

None. No HTML or CSS font or color styles are set.

Tests

Use default fonts and colors.

Content does not specify text characteristics or background color, and is not relying upon technology that changes those defaults.

Procedure

  1. Look in all places that text color can be specified
  2. Check that text color is not specified
  3. Look in all areas that background color or image used as a background can be specified
  4. Check that no background color or image used as a background is specified

Expected Results

Resources

Use default fonts and colors.

Content does not specify text characteristics or background color, and is not relying upon technology that changes those defaults.

Changelog

Use default fonts and colors.

Content does not specify text characteristics or background color, and is not relying upon technology that changes those defaults.