By Erich Manser — One thing I consider essential for engineers who are concerned with digital accessibility to understand is that the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) Standards, while foundational and extremely important, are also quite limited in scope and coverage.
Even as WCAG continues to evolve and expand, there will always be use cases in which some will face digital barriers that simply are not covered by standards, especially as new technologies continue to emerge. Standards provide a technical basis and clear guidance, but we must also take continual guidance from the shared experiences and real needs of people with disabilities.
For example, I am someone with low vision who relies on magnification and inverted colors in order to see what’s on my screen. The appearance of light text on a dark background is softer and less glaring for me, and enhances my ability to perceive what’s there, and view it without pain or discomfort.
Recently, however, I’ve noticed more interfaces that combine both light and dark themes in a single user experience, giving a split light‑dark appearance, almost like the traditional Chinese Yin‑Yang symbol. From my perspective as a user, this is problematic because it automatically means there is some portion of that page or app that I will be unable to view comfortably, yet there is nothing in current WCAG guidelines to require color uniformity across a user interface.
While this is a single, personal experience, I know many others with disabilities who have similar experiences with barriers not covered by WCAG.
From Horton, S., & Sloan, D. (2024). What Every Engineer Should Know About Digital Accessibility. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.
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