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Windows High Contrast Mode

Windows high contrast mode (Win HCM) changes the colours on the screen to a specific high-contrast scheme. It is used by visually impaired people. It is a useful tool to ensure that visual information is not conveyed with purely decorative styles.

Installation

HCM is a built-in feature of the Windows operating systems and does not need to be installed separately.

Usage

You can toggle HCM using the keyboard shortcut Alt + Shift + PrtScn. Alternatively, you can manually go to Control Panel → Change the theme and select one of the "High Contrast" themes.

Windows HCM themes

Now take a look at your website in Edge and ensure that all visual information is still perceivable. For example, when the currently active link in a navigation is marked using a symbol, this symbol still needs to be displayed in HCM. Also, the keyboard focus always needs to be clearly perceivable. Do not use Firefox or Chrome when you are testing HCM.

The WCAG 2.0 website in high contrast mode

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