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Comment by cnorthwood | Hacker News Reader

There are a significant number of low contrast warnings from a cursory glance through an accessibility tool: https://wave.webaim.org/report#/https://jgthms.com/hacker-ne...

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I don't think an optional dark-mode should be expected to accommodate all people with visual disabilities. On the contrary, given the diversity of visual impairments and personal preferences people have, I don't think any stylesheet can reasonably be expected to accommodate all people, which is precisely why support for multiple stylesheets is important.

Why should't the default dark mode fulfill basic contrast requirements (in this case WCAG AA is absolutely possible)? It's not difficult to achieve, and the same problem would exist if the website was in "dark mode" by default.

A website that is bright by default isn't accessible to some people with photophobia (which has a myriad of causes). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photophobia But some people have precisely the opposite sort of issue.

I maintain that no stylesheet can be accessible to everybody. If any accessibility-assessment tool says otherwise, that reflects a failure of that tool to consider some classes of visual impairment.

i agree with you.

i can't tell you how much i struggle on a daily basis with websites who have passed these "standards". i don't even have anything serious. i just can't read small text well.

so my browser zoom is 150% by default which i adjust if it's too big. that all i did!

my setting has broken major sites on a daily basis. that tool that another poster linked is broken on my side! that's the tool that's telling people they are not following standards...

so yea, i fully agree with you!

I'm sorry if this sounds rude - why don't you create one then?

Maybe they don't know how to create it. You don't need to be a good cook (or even know how to cook) to say that a dish is too salty.

Didn't perceive it as rude, but don't understand what my ability has to do with my critique. The contrast in OP's dark mode stylesheet is trivially fixed by making the font lighter.

interesting tool. thanks for sharing. it failed on a few sites that i tested it on though.

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