[trhway]

>I must say that if you can't read the #586772 on white, that's a pretty severe handicap

well, i have pretty much technically perfect (just very easily tired after almost 30 years looking into the screen) vision and while i can read it, i'd prefer to have it in higher contrast as i just physically feel how my eyes have to work harder for the glorious make benefit of design.

After spending some time some years ago on accessibility related work, it became clear to me that while obviously the accessibility is the key for handicapped users, the thought-through accessibility (vs. just "get a screenreader") on a project frequently results in the improved design that is better (like in particular cleaner and simpler in appearance and interaction flow) for the regular non-handicapped users too.