Say your site styles are responding to the prefers-contrast: less media query. Must they still conform to the relevant 4.5:1 and 3:1 contrast ratios when the media query is active?
@sarajw I miiiight have made use of my work Teams to ask @scottohara. His take was that since prefers-contrast is an explicit user choice, then no, WCAG wouldn't require you to meet those contrast thresholds when the media query is active, so long as the default theme is totally conformant. That said, he thought it'd still probably be good to ensure text is still at least 3:1, since "less contrast" doesn't mean "text should be illegible."
Of course 3:1 and 4.5:1 is already at the “low contrast” end of the spectrum, so going much lower might not be useful. The idea is more that you look at high contrast colors >12:1 and lower their contrast.
@heydon@yatil@ben@scottohara I love your style though! Lolol yeah maybe a few people might like a filter on it...
I mean, yes, with all of this contrast stuff, people can adjust their monitors etc., and I know many do.
But it's often a pain, several menus to click through, clunky buttons or weird joysticks, and laptop monitors often have less sliders available, or you have to go through a calibration wizard or something to access a gamma or contrast slider.
Possible It Depends™️ factors include whether there's a "default" experience, and whether the site is purely keying off of OS/browser preferences or if it (also?) has a theme selector.
Generally, default experiences should conform, and changing themes should be easy and accessible.
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