Add accessibility subsection to settings page

Dustin

While Kagi uniquely offers users the ability to add custom CSS to change their browsing experience, this is not a skill that’s available to everyone. I had the thought that perhaps a handful of useful accessibility features could be added to an Accessibility subsection in Settings. This would allow users to turn on/off certain useful features and allow them to sync across all places they use their Kagi account for a seamless experience.

I am not an accessibility expert by any means and Kagi already appears (to me) to tick a lot of the boxes out of the gate but some initial examples might be:

Respect system fonts (See here)
Use hyper legible font (Such as Atkinson Hyperlegible Next)
Large print mode
High contrast mode

More could be added based on user feedback.

jacobwinters

We've had a font size setting for quite some time now. If you need specific fonts or higher contrast, we encourage you to apply them through browser and OS settings, because that fixes the problem across the entire web all at once. If we're succeeding as a search engine, you should be spending a lot more time looking at the pages we find for you throughout the web than you spend looking at our results pages.

Setup varies by platform, and will often go through OS settings (system-wide fixes, not just web-wide!). This is how I do it on Firefox:

Firefox settings - fonts
Firefox settings - contrast control

On a search page:

Kagi results page with high contrast and custom font

First result; fonts and contrast settings still applied:

Debian package page for fonts-atkinson-hyperlegible, also with high contrast and custom font

jacobwinters

... though I'm noticing that we have a few bugs in our support for system-wide high contrast mode, so I'm going to go fix those now.

complaintman

It is difficult to read some parts of the search results provided by kagi. When using the dark theme for example, the answer that pops to the side of the search result hurts my eyes.

I like the low contrast look of kagi but an option for high contrast themes would be very appreciated for people with subpar vision.

Vlad

complaintman We have multiple themes avaialble. Have you tried them all?

Also have you tried any of the community submitted themes?

https://help.kagi.com/kagi/features/custom-css.html

Nankeru

complaintman

I had a similar issue with the standard themes and the ones which are community submitted.
That's why I wrote a simple little CSS code (works with Moon Dark) which fixed it for me and looks also nice on an amoled/OLED screen:

body { background-color: black; } @media screen and (min-width: 1270px) { :root { --center_content_width: 720px; --app_content_padding: 110px; } } .landing_cat_buttons { background-color: black; } .k_ui_dropdown.__transparent { background-color: black; }

eandrews

What does your feature entail? What is it for? How will it affect existing workflows or user experience?
The default font is extremely difficult to read for some dyslexic users. It's easy enough to override with CSS, but most users cannot be expected to be comfortable using CSS. Adding an easy toggle to disable the default font and defer to system instead will greatly increase accessibility.

What are the exact ways that you see a user using your proposed feature? Please go into as much detail as possible, and provide examples of how other browsers/apps implement this feature, if applicable. If your feature suggestion adds on to an existing feature, how would it work into it to extend its usefulness?
I foresee users who find the default font difficult to read using this feature to make the search engine easier to use.

Vlad

eandrews Thanks. Would you please share a bit more details?
Do you mean the helvetica font? Would changing it to Arial be better? Or are you suggesting switching to system-ui? https://github.com/system-fonts/modern-font-stacks

RedBalloon

I agree with the fact that the default font is an accessibility problem. There are fonts such as the Atkinson Hyperlegible font, which are easy enough to implement. Personally, I use that one, even though I have perfectly adequate eyesight, because the font is much easier to read and strains the eyes less.

Dustin

Great suggestion @eandrews! It could be something as simple as a toggle for "respect system fonts" or something like that perhaps?

And I agree with @RedBalloon that Atkinson Hyperlegible Next is a fantastic choice for a font that's both attractive and accessible.

carl

Does Kagi need to specify a font everywhere? If font-family is left unspecified, any webpage will display with the system/browser standard font. For headings you might want to keep some specified fonts because of branding, but for P text and such, there's nothing wrong with leaving it to the user's system.

Nowadays most popular browsers have the operating system font as their default, the times of Times New Roman are over.