Following is the feedback from one of our staff members:
"Overall the functionality is improved and it seems a little easier to use, except that the highlighting colours make it difficult to read the gradebook summary when the writing is small.
That could be because I am colour-blind, in which case it is only my problem."
I would like to alter the way these grades are displayed in case anyone else who is colour-blind uses the 'Grade to Pass' feature - are there any suggestions on how to highlight the cell rather than the text?
Cheers
Teresa
Hi Teresa,
I have not installed or looked at 1.9.5 yet, but it is on my to-do list. I would say this though, that being a "colour-challenged" individual myself, red-green specifically, small amounts of colour, like colouring text, is much harder to distinguish for me than slightly larger colour patches, like colouring the cell. I also find that the intensity of the red/green difference helps. For example I have no trouble distinguishing between a green traffic light and a red one... much to everyone's relief! 
I just thought I would mention because colour issues with respect to usability and accessibility are certainly not only the problem of the user you mentioned, and are often overlooked in user interface design. I could certainly also see issues where students or even staff may be colour-blind and not even be aware that they are. I certainly wasn't aware until tested as a child, and it can certainly cause confusion.
As to changing the colouration from the text to the cell, I am still learning how Moodle is programmed, so I don't have a good answer for that one. From my experience so far, I suspect it may be as simple as a CSS class change? But perhaps someone more knowledgable could chime in here on that issue.
Carvell
Look in the css files for .gradepass and .gradefail which you can alter to have a different background e.g. an image. I can't remember which file it's in, but a search will turn them up.
Highlighting the cell is currently going to need a hack to the core files as the gradepass and gradefail selectors are attached only to the text spans inside the cells. What do you think would be the best way to make this visible to a colour blind user? I was thinking of adding a red cross or green tick either before or after the grade.
Highlighting the cell is currently going to need a hack to the core files as the gradepass and gradefail selectors are attached only to the text spans inside the cells. What do you think would be the best way to make this visible to a colour blind user? I was thinking of adding a red cross or green tick either before or after the grade.
I am using the Gradebook in 1.9.4, and it seems to highlight the cell with a red and green that I can easily differentiate. Like I said, for me the amount of colour does have an effect. I have read that symbols are commonly used, and often are a good choice to accomodate colour blindness. However, adding another item to the mark cell will cause the grader report to be wider yet again, and some people (*ahem* me being one) are having issues with that already. If highlighting with high contrast red/green is not an option in newer versions, then perhaps the symbols would be good if they could be added as an optional item that could be enabled or disabled as required.
Another option if changing the text colour is desired would perhaps be to change weight or emphasis of one of the states. For example in our organization, we really want to be able to quickly and easily visually assess which students are failing and need extra assistance. If the red text marks for failures were also bolded or italicized, then they would stand out I think, and would not add as much to a cell width as a symbol.
My two cents 
Carvell
Thanks Matt & Carvell
I'll have a play
Teresa
I'll have a play
Teresa