Accessibility finding
Text contrast failures reported by the scanners
Accessibility Error Severity: High
Part of the audit Colour contrast. Finding id: accessibility.contrastFromScanners.
What it costs you
People with low vision, and anyone reading on a phone in sunlight, cannot read this text.
What to do
The scanner's guidance applies: [help url]. Change the text colour or the background until the ratio is at least 4.5 to 1, or 3 to 1 for large text. Change it where the colour is defined, so every use is fixed.
What it checks
- Text contrast too low
- Large text contrast too low
- Text hard to read over image
How to fix it
Darken the text colour where it is defined
- Find the rule or token that sets the colour.
- Pick the nearest colour that reaches the ratio against the background in use.
- For text on an image, put a solid or semi-opaque layer behind the text.
How to check: Run the scanners on the page again: no scanner reports the element.
A real case
WebAIM's 2026 scan of the top one million home pages found text with too little contrast on 83.9% of them.
Thresholds
| Name | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
min_scanners | 2 | How many scanners must report the same element before the finding counts as a failure. |