Make Light Mode More Accessible

I'm astigmatic, and one of the many ways that impacts my day to day is that-- with digital text-- light text over dark backgrounds appears blurry to me. This can be difficult to read. So, light modes are a fantastic way to allow people like me to more easily access websites, apps, and computers in general.

It's important to note that astigmatism is one of the most common disabilities worldwide, with current estimates suggesting that 40% of the global population has some form of astigmatism. This isn't a niche, light mode is a serious, necessary accessibility need.
 

The Contrast Problem

The primary issue I've run into, repeatedly, is that various key elements of Discord's light theme fail to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines' suggestions in regards to contrast ratios. We're talking things like links-- which are presently a bright blue, and against the barely-off-white background get a contrast ratio of only 4.4-- which is just shy of passing the 4.5 guideline. I, personally, find links difficult to read as-is, and have to squint to properly process them. I'd find a color more along the lines of #4d5beb (with a ratio of 5.06 against the light theme background), much easier to parse.

Similarly, I find ping notifications (the little red dot) difficult to spot, too-- the red, against the light mode sidebar's background, has a worse contrast ratio than the link colors: 4.25. I'd find a darker red like #cc2a33 much easier to parse!
 

Role Colors & Server Settings

Another frequent problem I run into is that many servers set role colors to work best for dark mode, which often means bright colors that have very low contrast with light mode's background-- thus rendering the majority of usernames illegible. 

It'd do a lot for users like me if we could enable some sort of auto contrast setting that swapped those colors to dark variants we can read! Beyond that, it'd be immensely helpful to just enable servers to set separate role colors for both light and dark mode users.

Similarly, enabling servers to upload alternate emoji for light and dark mode users would help greatly-- as many are designed with dark mode in mind, and thus, can be difficult to see on light mode.
 

Another Option: Customizable Colors

Another option would be to enable users to adjust their theme colors outright, and pick what's most accessible for them. I understand that there are Nitro-only themes-- so something like the setting only adjusting the values of colors or having a preset selection of shades could be still useful here without stepping on toes.

Right now, there are three flavors of dark mode, while light mode users only have one. If it's not in the cards to get two more light themes, perhaps a setting like this may save time while still making things more accessible for us?
 

Closing

As-is I often have to switch back to dark mode due to the present problems with light mode, even if it strains my eyes and takes longer to read. It's important that I can read things like usernames, links, and pings-- as much as it's important to be able to read body text. I don't super love having to compromise between them.

I don't want to be entirely negative here, so I'd like to take a moment to recognize and praise some of the recent updates to light mode, which have helped considerably. The change from pure white to an off-white background and black text to grey were big improvements to legibility!

My suggestions here come from the perspective of an astigmatic user and web designer specializing in accessible design. I hope this reaches someone and can help make Discord more accessible to folk!