DISABILITIES

Light Mode versus Dark Mode

Chantal Gaudiano Whittington
4 min readAug 2, 2022

Different strokes for different folks

Image by Lieselot Dalle on Unsplash: Smoke

I’ve noticed that the internet’s population seems divided into two parts — those who like to use dark mode and those who can’t stand it. Since I work in the field of low vision, I thought I would discuss this issue.

I’m afraid, for the time being, both factions of people must learn to “change the channel” if they don’t like their browsing experience on any given page of a site — at least until or unless the site develops a way for users to configure their display preferences for browsing. Enabling such configuration of user preferences is possible, and it can be made to override the preferences of an author in favor of the viewer’s needs. This is possible on Facebook and Livejournal, so I know it can be done elsewhere.

What Is Dark Mode?

Dark mode is also known as white-on-black screen display. It is used to make text stand out when viewed. Along with light mode, or black-on-white, it is considered a high-contrast setting, one of the two most preferable settings for people who have low contrast sensitivity, which means a poor ability to accurately distinguish shapes that have low contrast against their background.

Why do some people use dark mode?

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Chantal Gaudiano Whittington
Chantal Gaudiano Whittington

Written by Chantal Gaudiano Whittington

Chantal writes about disabilities, spirituality, stock investing--and life in general.

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