When the College of Health and Care Professionals of BC was formed in the summer of 2024, our logo featured bright green stars, accompanied by light and dark blue text. Six months later, we began the process of replacing this logo on our website and documents with an enhanced version, featuring larger text and slightly different colouring. Why the re-brand for such a new organization?
The answer relates to digital accessibility, which is at the heart of a much bigger project still in progress at CHCPBC. As an organization serving diverse publics, we recognize that we have a responsibility to make our services accessible to all who need them, and that foundational aspects of our original brand were getting in the way of us in doing that.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the international standard for digital accessibility; all web content (websites, apps, online forms, and the like) can be measured against WCAG. The vast majority of web content doesn’t measure up. The most common accessibility failure is low-contrast text, where a font colour is too similar to its background colour, making the text difficult to read. For folks with vision impairments, this kind of design choice can make a website unusable.
The branding that CHCPBC launched with included a palette of six colours — three of those colours are considered to have low contrast when used with text on a white background. Staff with digital accessibility expertise identified the issue, highlighting specifically that the font colour used for the words “College of” in our logo did not offer sufficient contrast against a white background, in accordance with WCAG. Everywhere we used our logo, we therefore failed to meet accessibility standards.
The work of re-developing our logo and colour palette was supported by a local graphic designer trained in WCAG compliance. In addition, our team was honoured to consult again with Coast Salish Knowledge Keeper and artist, Sulksun (Shane Pointe), whose creative insights in prior brand development discussions inspired the CHCPBC star motif.
Acknowledging that more than 250,000 people in British Columbia have some degree of vision loss, it’s important for any organization operating in this province to consider how their systems and processes accommodate for vision impairment. As the organization regulating opticians and optometrists, as well as other health professions that work with visually impaired individuals, CHCPBC takes this obligation very seriously. Digital accessibility is not just relevant but essential to our work.
Increasing the readability of our logo and expanding the versatility of our colour palette were important first steps on a long journey. We recognize that we still have a lot to do to make our web content more accessible to folks with vision, hearing, motor, and cognitive impairments.
As we observe Global Accessibility Awareness Day today, May 15, we’re celebrating the development of a more accessible brand and a stronger understanding of accessibility principles within our staff team, while also setting new goals. Our lengthy to-do list includes improving the usability of our website for visitors who use screen readers.
