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Introducing: Accessible Color Palette Helper

by Rebecca Bergh

I’m excited to launch a new tool on RBG Data: the Accessible Color Palette Helper. Whether you’re building a Tableau dashboard, designing a data visualization, or just want to make sure your colors work for everyone, this tool has you covered.

What It Does

The Color Palette Helper lets you:

  1. Test Contrast Ratios – See if your color combinations meet WCAG accessibility standards (AA or AAA levels)
  2. Simulate Color Blindness – Preview how your palette appears to people with protanopia (red-blind), deuteranopia (green-blind), tritanopia (blue-blind), and achromatopsia (complete color blindness)
  3. Use Preset Palettes – Jump-start with carefully curated accessible palettes like the RBG Data brand colors or accessible sequential scales
  4. Export for Tableau – Copy your palette as comma-separated hex or RGB values, ready to paste into Tableau’s custom palette feature

Why This Matters

Color blindness affects roughly 8% of males and 0.5% of females worldwide. But even for people without color blindness, poor contrast makes visualizations hard to read on projectors or in print. Accessible color palettes aren’t just inclusive—they’re better for everyone.

How to Use It

Head over to the Tools section and try it out:

  • Pick a preset palette to see how it performs
  • Or paste your own hex/RGB colors to test them
  • Check contrast ratios between all color pairs
  • See simulations of how different types of color blindness perceive your palette
  • Export the results to use in Tableau

Key Metrics to Know

  • WCAG AAA (7:1) – Excellent contrast, works for all text sizes and audiences
  • WCAG AA (4.5:1) – Minimum acceptable, better for larger text
  • Below 4.5:1 – May be hard to read; consider adjusting

Coming Soon

I’m planning to add more tools to help with data visualization workflows. Let me know what would be most useful for your projects—calculated field generators? Data normalization helpers? Something else?

Try the tool out and let me know what you think. Accessibility in data visualization is a journey, and I’m here to help make it easier.

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