Every single part of HN’s inaccessibility is intentional, with a very strong and unshakable foundation beneath it. This is empirically proven by the fact that YCombinator hasn’t spent any effort on changing it for over a decade and a half. And it’s not for the lack of money or the lack of competence.
Of all the things one could complain about HN, like the tiny fonts and the tiny buttons next to each other and the disregard for making it easier for those who use screen readers, the color of a text submission would be the very last thing that would get fixed.
(This comment is partly sarcastic)
https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-undocumented
"Additionally, founders of YC companies see each other's usernames show up in orange, which — although not an explicit benefit — does allow fellow YC founders to immediately identify one another in discussions."
The real features are hidden from us plebes.