Supporting sufficient contrast accessibility with Xcode's Color Contrast Calculator

Quick tip on how to check if colors meet accessibility contrast requirements using Xcode’s built-in tools.

07 Jul 2025 · 4 min read

accessibility

ios

Image of Natascha Fadeeva

Image of Natascha Fadeeva

Natascha Fadeeva

iOS dev & creator of this site

Supporting sufficient color contrast helps users with low vision distinguish text, icons, and UI elements more easily. To verify if our color choices meet accessibility guidelines, we can use Xcode’s built-in Color Contrast Calculator.

The Color Contrast Calculator is part of the Accessibility Inspector. It can be opened via the menu bar under Xcode → Open Developer Tool → Accessibility Inspector, then choosing Window → Show Color Contrast Calculator.

Here, we can pick foreground and background colors using the color pickers in the calculator or use the color picker tool to sample from any part of our running app.

Xcode's Color Contrast Calculator

Xcode's Color Contrast Calculator

The contrast ratio will update after changing a color and show whether the chosen colors pass the contrast accessibility guidelines.

Preparing for a technical iOS job interview

Preparing for a technical iOS Job Interview with over 300 questions & answers. Covering Swift & Objective-C, SwiftUI & UIKit, Combine, HTTP Networking, iOS File System, Core Data, Concurrency with async/await, Security, Automated Testing, Dependency Management, AI & Machine Learning and more.

Architecture & Design Patterns for iOS

This book is a practical guide to essential architectural principles and design patterns for iOS development. It covers strategies for building maintainable apps with Swift and SwiftUI, including dependency injection, navigation, common patterns, and modularization.

Become a sponsor of tanaschita.com

By publishing an article on different iOS topics every week, tanaschita.com is constantly growing in the developer community and may provide a great audience for you as a sponsor.

CLICK TO LEARN MORE

Newsletter

Image of a reading marmot

Image of a reading marmot

Like to support my work?

Image of a coffee

Image of a coffee

Buy me a coffee

Say hi

Related tags

accessibility

ios

Articles with related topics

accessibility

swiftui

ios

Supporting Differentiate Without Color in SwiftUI

Learn how to communicate status with symbols and shapes instead of relying on color alone.

12 Oct 2026 · 4 min read

accessibility

swiftui

ios

Adapting SwiftUI layouts for large Dynamic Type sizes

Learn how to restructure SwiftUI layouts when larger accessibility text sizes leave too little room for content.

05 Oct 2026 · 5 min read

accessibility

swiftui

testing

xcode

ios

Automating accessibility audits for SwiftUI apps with XCTest

Learn how to detect common accessibility issues automatically as part of a UI test suite.

28 Sep 2026 · 5 min read

accessibility

swiftui

ios

Overview on Accessibility Nutrition Labels for iOS development

Get an overview of what Accessibility Nutrition Labels are and how to support them.

28 Jul 2025 · 5 min read

accessibility

swiftui

ios

Supporting Reduced Motion accessibility setting in SwiftUI

Learn how to respect system settings for reduced motion to improve usability for motion-sensitive users.

14 Jul 2025 · 3 min read

accessibility

swiftui

ios

How to support Dynamic Type accessibility in SwiftUI

Learn how to support font scaling for user's custom text size settings.

30 Jun 2025 · 4 min read

Latest articles and tips

accessibility

swiftui

ios

Supporting Differentiate Without Color in SwiftUI

Learn how to communicate status with symbols and shapes instead of relying on color alone.

12 Oct 2026 · 4 min read

accessibility

swiftui

ios

Adapting SwiftUI layouts for large Dynamic Type sizes

Learn how to restructure SwiftUI layouts when larger accessibility text sizes leave too little room for content.

05 Oct 2026 · 5 min read

accessibility

swiftui

testing

xcode

ios

Automating accessibility audits for SwiftUI apps with XCTest

Learn how to detect common accessibility issues automatically as part of a UI test suite.

28 Sep 2026 · 5 min read

testing

swift

ios

Parameterized tests and test organization with Swift Testing

Learn how to cover multiple inputs with parameterized tests and organize a growing Swift Testing test suite.

21 Sep 2026 · 7 min read

swiftui

swift

concurrency

async/await

ios

Building responsive and reliable search in SwiftUI

Learn how to debounce search input, cancel obsolete requests and prevent stale results using Swift concurrency.

14 Sep 2026 · 6 min read

activitykit

widgetkit

swiftui

swift

ios

Getting started with Live Activities in SwiftUI

Build a public transport journey tracker for the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island with ActivityKit.

07 Sep 2026 · 7 min read