Android · Accessibility
Adjust how colors render for color vision deficiency
Color Correction shifts the device's color palette to compensate for common types of color blindness (deuteranomaly, protanomaly, tritanomaly), while the related Color Inversion setting flips light and dark values for users who prefer high-contrast or low-glare screens.
How to open Color Correction & Inversion
- Open Settings
- Tap Accessibility, then Text and display
- Select Color correction or Color inversion
- Toggle the feature and choose a correction mode if applicable
What you should know
- Offers correction modes for red-green and blue-yellow color deficiencies
- Color inversion swaps light backgrounds for dark ones system-wide
- Changes apply globally across apps, not just system menus
- Can be toggled quickly via the accessibility shortcut once configured
Why it matters
Roughly one in twelve men and a smaller share of women have some form of color vision deficiency, which can make status indicators, charts, and app icons hard to distinguish. Color Correction remaps the palette so those distinctions become visible again, while Color Inversion serves users who are light-sensitive or prefer reversed contrast for reading. Together they make the entire OS usable rather than relying on individual apps to add their own accommodations.
Best practices
- Try each correction mode against a color test image to find the best match for your specific deficiency
- Use inversion sparingly, since some media (photos, video) can look unnatural when inverted
- Combine with Dark Mode instead of inversion when only reduced brightness is needed
- Re-check correction settings after major OS updates since color profiles can reset
Common problems and fixes
- Photos and videos look wrong after enabling inversion
- This is expected since inversion affects all rendered pixels; disable it for media-heavy apps or switch to Dark Mode instead
- Correction mode does not fix the issue
- Try the other available correction modes, since deficiency types vary and one mode may work better than another
Tips and tricks
- Set the accessibility shortcut to instantly compare corrected and uncorrected views
- Use grayscale mode (also in this menu) to reduce distraction from color entirely
Frequently asked questions
Does color correction change photos I take?
No, it only changes how colors are displayed, not the underlying image data.
Is inversion the same as Dark Mode?
No, Dark Mode is a designed dark theme, while inversion mathematically flips all colors and can look inconsistent in photos.
Related settings
- MagnificationMagnification lets low-vision users zoom into any part of the screen using a shortcut gesture or button, temporarily or persistently enlarging content system-wide, independent of any single app's own zoom controls.
- Accessibility SettingsAndroid's Accessibility settings include TalkBack screen reading, magnification, color and contrast adjustments, and Switch Access for people who use adaptive hardware.
- Accessibility ShortcutThe Accessibility Shortcut lets you trigger a chosen accessibility feature, such as TalkBack, Magnification, or Select to Speak, from anywhere using a button combination, gesture, or on-screen icon, without navigating through Settings.
More Accessibility guides for Android
- Languages & Input / KeyboardLanguages & input settings control your device's system language, additional keyboard languages, and features like autocorrect, voice typing, and text-to-speech. You can add multiple keyboard languages and switch between them without changing your phone's overall display language.
- TalkBackTalkBack is Android's built-in screen reader, describing what's on screen out loud and letting you navigate the entire phone using gestures and audio feedback instead of relying on sight.
- Live CaptionLive Caption automatically generates real-time captions for videos, podcasts, voice messages, and calls playing on the device — entirely on-device, without needing an internet connection or the media having built-in subtitles.
- Select to SpeakSelect to Speak lets you tap or draw a box around text, images, or entire screens to have Android read the content aloud using text-to-speech. It works inside apps, on the web, and even on images with detectable text.
- Text-to-Speech OutputText-to-Speech Output controls which speech synthesis engine, language, voice, and speaking rate the system uses for every feature that reads text aloud, including TalkBack, Select to Speak, and navigation prompts.
- Interaction Controls (Touch & Hold Timeout)Interaction Controls let you lengthen the time the screen waits before registering a touch-and-hold as a long press, and enable settings that ignore repeated or accidental touches, helping users with limited dexterity or tremors interact more reliably.