Google has made a new browser tool available to web developers Chrome which helps them simulate those visual handicaps in the domain of colorblindness, so that they can solve any accessibility problems to their sites. The tool available in Chrome 82, currently in the early beta phase.
New accessibility feature in @ChromeDevTools: simulate vision deficiencies, including blurred vision & various types of color blindness. ?
Find out how people with vision deficiencies experience your web app, and resolve contrast issues you didnt even know you had! pic.twitter.com/QKLQmEhhMM
– Mathias Bynens (@mathias) March 10, 2020
Developers can use this feature by launching Google Chrome and heading to the browser development tools. Under "Emulate vision deficiencies" a drop-down menu will open with the names of the various types of color blindness and by selecting one you can simulate how an individual suffering from the disease actually sees the site: the function in fact changes the colors so that the developer can make himself account if the web content is difficult to read and needs a more accurate color choice that takes these needs into account.
In theory that's nice but the -anomoly simulations are wrong unfortunately, you can't simulate it in that way.
– Ian Hamilton (@ianhamilton_) March 11, 2020
The new development tool made available by Google fits into the track already traced by Firefox starting from version 70 with its Accessibility Inspector. The inclusion of these development tools in both browsers is an important element for developers, since each shows the websites in a slightly different way and both enjoy a good diffusion among the public.
These are therefore useful tools, but which in some cases may not simulate in a perfectly accurate way as the accessibility expert wanted to point out Ian Hamilton of Mozilla. These tools have the advantage of offering developers a way to gain awareness of the problem.
Around 300 million people in the world have some form of visual impairment in the domain of color blindness, equal to 8% of the male population and 0.5% of the female population.
