Low Contrast Gray Fonts on Site Are Virtually Invisible To Me

I have very good eyesight, even in my mid-70's, but the use of the trendy low contrast gray fonts on the site are causing me great difficulty. I know this has been an (unfortunate) trend in web design for a few years now, but it is an absolute pain to try to read. I just reviewed a listing as a viewer would see it, and the description was so faint gray low contrast gray I could barely read it. This on a Windows 10 PC with a 24" Dell monitor that delivers crisp, clear colors and resolution was set at 1930 x 1080. There is even a web site that has sprung up to protest this, I would urge designers to have a read: https://contrastrebellion.com/ To quote nngroup.com summary on this issue:

"Low-Contrast Text Is Not the Answer. Summary: Low-contrast text may be trendy, but it is also illegible, undiscoverable, and inaccessible. Instead, consider more usable alternatives."

The solution, assuming you are using style sheets, which is almost a certainty, is PLEASE CHANGE THE TEXT FONT TO A DARKER, HIGHER CONTRAST READABLE FONT.

It got so bad recently I experimented with turning on high contrast for visually impaired in Windows 10, but that solution is so $DEITY-awful I had to turn it back off.

Comments

  • 6 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • edited July 2020 0 LikesVote Down
    I agree. One quick workaround might be to increase the font size in your browser. I use Firefox and if I hit " +" a few times it gets much more readable. At least that's something you can control.
  • I have to increase the size and then highlight - no idea why web designers seem to deliberately try to make it hard for the boomers to use their sites. I still think the ADA should apply but apparently age is not considered a disability. They will find out when they find it impossible to use the sites they created - that is karma for you..... wish I could be around to watch.
  • Carol, it's because web designers are in their twenties. They don't have cataracts. When they get to be in their 60s, we will have our revenge on them!
  • "Carol, it's because web designers are in their twenties. They don't have cataracts."

    And they have little regard for the people that have to use their "designs," and will not even acknowledge the comments and requests on this forum, on the subject. It really chaps my hide.
  • It's too gray for Mark to read and respond.
  • FWIW, I am in mid seventies, do not have cataracts, in fact have excellent eyesight. Also FWIW, I am retired IT professional, programming, systems analysis, last 15 years before retirement director of IT and computing for major athletics Division I program. My team created their first web site. So I speak from experience. And from vantage point of good eyesight that can STILL barely read the fond I am typing this in at the moment. I just looked at the page source for a HipStamp page, and they are using .css, i.e. style sheets. This means the font could be darkened for all text with just a few changes to the style sheet that controls body text, text being typed into text boxes like this, etc. All that is defined as elements in the style sheet, and applied in all pages. Voila. Readability Regained. Which lately, which seem like Paradise Regained.
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