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Accessibility - use with Windows High Contrast Mode [message #1841621]

Sat, 22 May 2021 18:53

Thomas Morrissey

Messages: 1
Registered: May 2021

Junior Member

I'm a new user of Eclipse IDE. I am visually impaired and must use a high contrast black color scheme in all of my UI experiences. As such, I have my Windows OS setting for High Contrast Mode set to on and I have selected an OS color scheme of high contrast black. I guess they call this "dark mode" these days.

I haven't been able to get the Eclipse IDE's editor pane to do anything useful with these settings. Apparently when the OS mode is set to "High Contrast" the available color theme options are severely (totally) limited. That wouldn't be a problem if the resulting settings were usable. But the editor pane shows most of the text as black on black or dark colors on black ... effectively invisible to me and unusable.
index.php/fa/40520/0/

This would be a minimally better result:
index.php/fa/40521/0/

I've done some searching for possible solutions. So far I haven't found anything. FWIW the top search results ...
-- Eclipse Color Theme 1.0.0 (as found in Eclipse Marketplace) won't install. Unknown host github url.
-- Darkest Dark Theme with DevStyle 2021.3.8 (as found in Eclipse Marketplace) installs but will NOT work when the OS High Contrast Mode is On. All of the available color themes provided by the plug-in are selectable, but ignored when OS High Contrast is On.
-- all of the other search results address color scheme solutions when OS High Contrast is Off.

It is not acceptable for me to toggle off OS High Contrast while using Eclipse IDE, since it is common to consult / use other simultaneously running apps that would be unusable for me without High Contrast mode on.

I must be missing something here, since I can't imagine that the Eclipse IDE is unusable for people with visual impairments that require the same or similar settings to that which I utilize.

Any help / insight would be greatly appreciated.

As a side note I'm currently using a very janky hack ... I toggle off OS High Contrast mode and (painfully) set up an an acceptable color theme in Eclipse IDE, then I toggle on OS High Contrast mode and answer "no" to Eclipse IDE's prompt to restart Eclipse IDE in response to the change of High Contrast Mode. That leaves the IDE running in a reasonable visual state for me. But I have to redo this whenever I shutdown and restart the IDE.

Configuration information:
Eclipse IDE for Java Developers (includes Incubating components)
Version: 2021-03 (4.19.0)
Build id: 20210312-0638
OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Version 10.0.19042 Build 19042

Attachment: EclipseIDE.highContrast.better.png
(Size: 70.28KB, Downloaded 636 times)
Attachment: EclipseIDE.highContrast.noWorky.png
(Size: 79.67KB, Downloaded 656 times)

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Re: Accessibility - use with Windows High Contrast Mode [message #1853031 is a reply to message #1841621]

Wed, 15 June 2022 12:17

Lucas Musciano

Messages: 1
Registered: June 2022

Junior Member

Hello Thomas!
I also need ot use Windows HC theme (retinitis pigmentosa here) and I work with Eclipse. I'm struggling with its awful response to the theme as well. I didn't find a real solution but i think maybe you could use the workaround i use.

I added the DevStyle addon (Darkest Dark Theme) to Eclipse. Before running it, i turn off the Windows HC, and then turn it on again when Eclipse is running. Then i choose "No" when Eclipse ask if i want to restart due to the HC activation.

This way, Eclipse stays with an acceptable dark theme (for my case at least) and i can still work with HC on all other apps. This don't work without DevStyle because eclipse UI gets weird even without restarting if you don't use the addon.

I hope this reply isn't too late. If you found a better solution, i would be happy to know it! and please ask for any concern on this workaround. Maybe we could share our accessibility tools for the dev life!

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