improving accessibility of the color palette

i recently joined an accessibility discussion channel at work, and a colleague shared a great tool called who can use. this app offers a handy way of checking your color scheme choices against the web content accessibility guidelines to help visitors of limited visual acuity or atypical color perception.

with this tool, i discovered that my initial choice of #00ccff didn't offer quite enough contrast to achieve the best marks. so, in the interest of making this site as welcoming and readable as possible, i've opted to embrace #80e5ff in my stylesheet. i hope anyone who maintains a personal space on the web will also use this for improving the usability of their site.