Neurodiversity

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Considering Reader Needs

This post is about a 6-minute read.

I’d started a different post to talk about my book launch – OCTOBER 1! – and got sidetracked by a worthwhile question. So instead, I decided to write about helping other humans. This post will give you some starting information about digital accessibility.

Accessibility means designing products, places, services, and digital tools so that everyone can use them, regardless of their physical or cognitive abilities.

“What’s good for a few can be good for all.”

– the witch, in Tildy Silverleaf and the Dungeon of the Dreadwyrm

Am I using a good color for people with eyesight issues?

I’ve had a basic style guide for my website pretty much since the beginning. I’ve made updates here and there, and I’ve recently been wondering if the text color for links popped enough. I’ve been using a deep green, wanting to reflect the forest setting of Tildy Silverleaf and the Starfall Omen.

OK. Hypothesis; time to test.

I started experimenting with lighter greens, and for the most part, they seemed like an improvement. Before I changed my style guide, however, I wanted to check the accessibility score of the color.

  • This random text helps illustrate how a color might pop or blend into a white background. It’s important to consider color blindness or other eye conditions that might make the font difficult to read.
  • This random text helps illustrate how a color might pop or blend into a white background. It’s important to consider color blindness or other eye conditions that might make the font difficult to read.
  • This random text helps illustrate how a color might pop or blend into a white background. It’s important to consider color blindness or other eye conditions that might make the font difficult to read.

I used Gemini just the way I’d use Google Search, and here’s how it advised me to improve my website experience for other humans:

Gemini: Yes, the bright green #37B904 presents significant accessibility concerns across contrast ratios and color vision deficiency (color blindness). 1. Color Contrast Failures (WCAG 2.1): The relative luminance of #37B904 sits in a mid-tone “dead zone” where it fails accessibility standards against both light and dark backgrounds. 2. Red-Green Color Blindness (Deuteranopia & Protanopia). Recommended Alternatives: Use a darker green to hit the 4.5:1 ratio minimum (e.g., #247B02 or #1E6B02).

Let me translate. The #37B904 is the digital code for this particular color green. WCAG is a set of standards to ensure online content can be viewed by humans with a variety of conditions. If you want a little more info, read the entire post.

So, I tried Gemini’s suggestions and a few other colors. Then I measured my original green, which met or exceeded a number of guidelines and scored better than any other test. So for now, I think I’ll keep my choice, but also continue to underline all links (in my lifetime I’ve seen the invention of hyperlinks, which used an underlined light blue font, and I’ve seen modern sites that use no unique styling to indicate a clickable link, which feels like a miss, even if it makes the overall page a little cleaner-looking). Between my color and underlining, I’ve got 2 different ways to help users interact with my site. It feels meaningful, but it’s also a reminder that there are probably other things I can do to improve.

I hope this helps! If you want to learn a little more about accessibility, hex codes, and why an author should care, read on!

–Mike

What is WCAG?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are the international rules for making digital content usable for people with all kinds of abilities. The guidelines are broad, many, and updated regularly, which can make following every single one a very challenging task. Understanding even a little bit of this, however, will also ensure you’re not doing funky things that impact every reader. Such as putting grey text on a mint background, which would look like this (it says, “which would look like this.”).

What are Hex colors?

A classic Far Side cartoon in which a dog considers the chalk board that two scientists are using. One says, "Ooooooh....Look at that Schuster....Dogs are so cute when they try to comprehend quantum mechanics."

In school, many of us learned the colors of the rainbow thanks to Mr. ROY G BIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). So, I’m going to level up your knowledge just a smidge.

A hex color is a six-digit code used in digital design and coding to represent a specific color, starting with the basic red, blue, green (RGB) palette. Hex is short for hexadecimal, which is a 16-digit numbering system (0123456789ABCDEF), unlike our standard decimal system (1-10); it’s how we tell our masters the machines which very specific color we want.

  • Format = #RRGGBB
  • Lowest intensity = 00
  • Highest intensity = FF
  • #000000 is white
  • #FFFFFF is black

I originally went to college for computing programming, and hexadecimal still gives me a headache.

Dammit, Jim, I’m a writer not a software developer! Why, oh why would an author care about this stuff?

It would be very easy to say, “I just wanna write” or “this is too complicated”. My response would be, as an author I have a responsibility to connect with as many humans as possible, and since we live in an age where answers can be delivered instantaneously, a little AI Q&A can go a long way to informing us. I’m sharing this info to give others a starting point from which they can make their own decisions about learning and changing. Do some research; do some good!

And when it comes to publishing, the more production aspects you’re doing yourself, the more you’ll need to understand. I do everything on the website and I self-publish. RGB and Hex are for digital (WordPress uses Hex; MS Word uses both). Actual print, y’know, on paper, has different color standards: CYMK (cyan, yellow, magenta, black). When I was exporting my cover from Canva, this was an important to select.

Do you or I need to be an expert on any of this? No, but new knowledge is a good thing in my opinion. Helping others is even better. It could also save you some missteps on your writing journey, and gods know there are a heckuva lot of steps.

(C) Michael Wallevand, September 2026

decorative image of twisting ivy vines and leaves
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Writing Exercise – Gratitude

It’s very easy in a job – in any job – to get hung up on all the things you’d love to change. Or to get dragged into negativity when simple commiseration with colleagues descends into toxic complaint sessions. Having worked in a wide variety of roles, including food processing, lab assistant, retail, and several corporate jobs, I can attest that it happens everywhere.

My work division (FindLaw, a part of Thomson Reuters) is being sold to another company, and the watercooler talk runs the gamut of perspectives and opinions, which means if we’re not careful, we could spiral into endless negativity. The stress is high, and many have an irrational fear of the unknown.

What’s helpful for me, and what I’m recommending to all my mentees, is a pros/cons list. It perhaps sounds cliché, but it’s still incredibly effective. While pay, merit increases, and advancement opportunities are important, they’re not the reason I stay with a company. For me, a flexible working schedule is paramount.

My younger son, Benji, has severe autism. Sleep is a recurring issue for him. Some nights, he’s just awake. He’s somehow powered through his nighttime meds and can’t fall asleep again. One night becomes two becomes a week or more. There’s a compounding effect to this, meaning some of his behaviors are worsened, which creates difficulties at school or elsewhere in public. There have been days where I have to drop everything and run to school to bring him home.

At a recent social hour at the office, several colleagues asked how our family was doing.

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Writing Exercise: Monday Positivity

I’ve been trying to work on my positivity.

Correction, I’ve been working on my positivity.

CORRECTION: I have improved my positivity.

It’s tough. I have a pragmatic, neurodiverse, and often all-or-nothing view of the world. I like to identify problems and find creative ways to fix them. I’ve often said that the old Lexus commercials of the 1990s especially resonated with me.

a car with martini glasses stacked in a pyramid on its hood
Lexus: The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection

As I’ve matured, I’ve come to understand that this also creates the relentless pursuit of imperfection. Nothing is ever good enough, which often means, things remain bad until they are. It’s a helluva thing to overcome to publish a book. But if I put my “reason mind” to work (If you want to publish, you have to stop puttering about), it begins to drown out the “emotion mind” that’s often loudest in my head (Just one more edit and it’ll be perfect. Just one more. You’re so close. But just one more.)

This morning, I was looking for a way to start my Monday with a positive attitude, which is tough for many of us. Part of our social contract in America is commiserating over the start of the work week. It’s probably a multi-million dollar industry, when you consider all the merchandise dedicated to grumpy Mondays.

I thought back to how good my Friday was. It started with this: A Day Bright, and Full of Promise. It was a simple writing exercise that got my brain moving, and the creative outlet got those feel-goods coursing through my veins.

Instead of simply jumping into work, with who knows what surprises awaiting me, I took a few minutes to jot this down in a coffee shop.

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