1123055 - "Darken Colors" accessibility preference is not respected

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox for iOS :: Theme & Visual Design, defect)

Description

[Boris Dušek]

iOS 7 added "Darken Colors" user preference (in Settings > General > Accessibility > Increase Contrast). iOS 8 added API to check whether this preference is enabled (UIAccessibilityDarkerSystemColorsEnabled()) and to subscribe to notifications when this preference changes (UIAccessibilityDarkerSystemColorsStatusDidChangeNotification), so that applications using custom fonts can respect that user preference.

There are several places where Firefox for iOS uses e.g. UIColor.darkGrayColor() color and UIColor.lightGrayColor(). These should be changed to more darker colors (i.e. darkGrayColor could become blackColor, lightGrayColor could become darkGrayColor or blackColor) when the preference is set. In second step, it would be great also to listen to the notification so that the user does not have to restart Firefox after they change the preference, and thus have a flawless user experience.

Comment 1

[Boris Dušek]

Just to add, this accessibility feature is for people with worse sight who might get trouble seeing e.g. subtle light gray font on white background. So when this setting is enabled, apps are expected to make not-so-dark things darker (or perhaps not-so-bright things brighter) so that they have more contrast against a bright background which should help them to read it better (or at least recognize that there is something there).

Comment 2

[Brian Nicholson (:bnicholson)]

Attachment: Pull request