Forced colors – test your page or app in high contrast mode

Note: This post is older than two years. It may still be totally valid, but things change and technology moves fast. Code based posts may be especially prone to changes...

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New CSS media query that can enable more control for high contrast mode and what high contrast mode actually is and how it is not only a dark mode

High contrast mode is not dark mode. They are two different modes and need different approaches.

High contrast mode is designed to improve readability and push aside all the fancy design ornaments and really allow the user to get to the content itself – or better said text.

It is about reducing the design noise and in practice only get borders and text to simplify it – everything should be readable is the main goal!

We can trace it back to WCAG success criterion Visual Presentation – 1.4.8. (level AAA) where it defines; Foreground and background colors can be selected by the user.

So colors could be set by user but at the same time all texts, buttons, and other important elements must be perceivable to the same extent as without users customized settings.

Why is high contrast mode important

According to WebAIM’s survey – a third of users with low vision is using high contrast mode very frequently (opens in new window). So – screen reader and zooming lead, but high contrast is also quite a popular choice.

It is not a design choice and should not be treated like that

Personally I can see the biggest difference comparing dark mode and high contrast mode in exactly this – dark mode should be designed while high contrast mode should only be supported. Designers should really define dark mode variation of the page or an app while it is not so crucial to do in the high contrast mode. The rules of coding the UI for high contrast mode are more on the developers, especially front-end developers.

The colors in high contrast mode are being forced on the design

Yes, there is actually a set of CSS standards that enable developers to check for high contrast mode or even properties that can control user agent forced color;

Please be aware that support in the cross-browser world is still limited (opens in new window), but that does not mean it does not matter.

Best practices for high contrast mode

As always – use semantic markup is the first and most obvious rule. Another thing to understand is that outline matters much more than in normal mode – as high contrast mode all box-shadows can disappear it is important to set the outline to get it done properly in the high contrast mode.

Background images can be ignored, so if you are using them make sure the content has alternative text or alternative presentation.

SVG can even become invisible, so please be sure to think of all the icons for buttons and infographics that may be accessible in normal mode but could disappear in high contrast mode (think black SVG on a black background). This can be prevented when defining SVG fill colors but those are not always possible, so make sure to test.

As always – manual test is crucial

I have not been able to find an automatic tool that can do the analysis so please be sure to test it manually. It will maybe be possible in the future with the help of the new CSS force-color media query, when the support gets better, but as we know – manual testing is still best.

Additional resources for high contrast mode

Here are some additional resources I stumbled upon and may give you deeper overviews;

Author: Bogdan Cerovac

I am IAAP certified Web Accessibility Specialist (from 2020) and was Google certified Mobile Web Specialist.

Work as digital agency co-owner web developer and accessibility lead.

Sole entrepreneur behind IDEA-lab Cerovac (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility lab) after work. Check out my Accessibility Services if you want me to help your with digital accessibility.

Also head of the expert council at Institute for Digital Accessibility A11Y.si (in Slovenian).

Living and working in Norway (🇳🇴), originally from Slovenia (🇸🇮), loves exploring the globe (🌐).

Nurturing the web from 1999, this blog from 2019.

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