Guide
Smartphone Accessibility Settings For Photosensitivity
A successful college student with low vision shares tips on buying a new smart phone.
Phone screen too bright? Want to get rid of flashing animations? As part of my low vision and neurological condition, I experience light sensitivity in the form of photophobia (sensitivity to bright lights) and photosensitivity (sensitivity to strobe and/or flashing lights). Smartphone accessibility settings for photosensitivity and light sensitivity have come a long way since I first started wearing tinted glasses, and I use many of these settings to access my device both safely and independently. Here is a list of smartphone accessibility settings for photosensitivity and light sensitivity, including tips for how to choose a new phone with photosensitivity.
Before anything else, check the startup animation for flashing lights
When I purchased a Motorola phone several years ago, I didn’t realize that the startup animation would flash several rainbow colors when I first turned it on. I ran into a similar issue in high school when my friend turned on their phone next to me and a lightning effect flashed across the screen. When choosing a new phone with photosensitivity or light sensitivity, check the startup animation that plays when the phone turns on to ensure it will not cause any adverse effects— especially if the phone unexpectedly restarts and the user doesn’t have time to look away from the screen.
Unfortunately, users cannot turn off or edit the startup animation on their phone because there is no way to have an accessibility setting activated instantaneously when turning on a device. I had to return the Motorola phone and choose another device.
Related links
- Mainstream Technology and Low Vision: Smartphones
- Low Vision Accessibility Settings For Android Phones
- How To Make iPad Accessible for Low Vision
Turn off flashing notifications
Some phones have a setting enabled by default that will flash the phone’s camera bulb for incoming calls or notifications, or someone may get a secondhand phone with this setting unknowingly enabled. While flashing notifications are helpful for people who have hearing loss, it can be incredibly disorienting for someone with photosensitivity.
For iPhone, this setting can be turned off by opening Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual > LED Flash
For Android devices, this setting can be turned off by opening Settings > Notifications > Flash notifications
Related links
- How To Check Videos For Flashing Lights
- Flashing Lights and Photosensitivity in the Classroom
- How I Talk To Professors About Photosensitivity
Minimizing keyboard animations
Keyboard applications can have animations that appear flickering, flashing, or otherwise disorienting for people that have light sensitivity in some capacity. Examples of settings to turn on or off include:
- Popup on keypress, which flashes letters on screen as the user types
- Predictive content search or GIF keyboard, which can have unexpected flashing animations
- Suggestion strip, word predictions, or predictive text bars may flash or change animations quickly depending on the user’s typing speed
- Third-party keyboard apps often have a key press fade effect that can mimic blinking lights— this will need to be turned off or modified to avoid rapid blinking lights
One student I worked with considered using an external RGB keyboard on their phone to provide additional backlight, however the keyboard they tried out had a lot of flickering and flashing animations as the colors changed. For that reason, I would not recommend using an external RGB keyboard on a phone or other technology devices for users with sensitivity to flickering, flashing, or strobing lights.
Related links
- Mainstream Technology and Low Vision: Keyboards
- Choosing An iPad Keyboard For Low Vision
- Learning To Type With Low Vision
Add color filters or display filters to reduce bright light on Android
Both Android and iOS offer options for applying color filters or other display filters to reduce the intensity of white light without drastically impacting color display.
Within Android, users can customize their phone display by opening the Accessibility menu in Settings and enabling the following settings:
COLOR INVERSION
Color inversion is a color mode/color filter that changes a light-colored display with dark text to a dark-colored display with light text. This can be helpful for users with low vision that are sensitive to bright lights or want to improve the contrast of a display without removing any background graphics. This will override dark mode displays and render them as having light backgrounds with dark elements, and can be used in any application.
DARK MODE
Dark mode (sometimes called dark theme or night mode) is a display setting for user interfaces that displays a light-colored text against a dark-colored background. This is different from the default “light mode”, which displays dark-colored text against a light-colored background. Dark mode color palettes typically consist of white or light grey text, icons, and user interface elements displayed on a dark gray, dark blue, or black background.
Extra Dim
For people who prefer an even dimmer screen, there is also an “extra dim” option for reducing the white point of the device. This is a must-have for people who think their phone screen is too bright or want to make their screen even darker than the lowest brightness setting.
Display brightness
Within the Display menu, users can also turn off Adaptive Brightness and turn on color filters to improve the display of colors on their device.
Related links
- Customize Accessibility Settings For Specific Apps
- Choosing Between Light Mode and Dark Mode For Low Vision
- How Tinted Glasses Help My Light Sensitivity
Add color filters or display filters for iOS devices
For iPhone and iOS, the following accessibility settings can be configured to reduce the intensity of bright light on device displays:
INVERT COLORS
Invert colors (also known as inverted display or invert) is a color mode/color filter that changes a light-colored display with dark text to a dark-colored display with light text. This can be helpful for users with low vision that are sensitive to bright lights or want to improve the contrast of a display without removing any background graphics.
iPad offers two options to invert colors, known as Smart Invert and Classic Invert. Smart Invert does not invert or change the colors of pictures, images, videos, icons, or existing interfaces already in dark mode. Classic Invert will use a full color inversion, changing all display colors for content and displaying “dark mode” content in a light color palette.
COLOR FILTER
Color filters are tools that can help reduce eye strain from screens by reducing the negative effect of blue light and/or adjusting how colors are displayed on a screen for a more comfortable viewing experience. Color filters can change how specific colors are displayed on a screen (helpful for colorblindness or color deficiencies) or apply a subtle tint to a display, similar to computer glasses or a screen protector.
For my iPad, I use the Color Tint setting to configure a red color at 7% intensity, which applies a subtle warm hue to my screen and acts similar to a blue light filter. This does not have any significant impact on color display for the screen, it just softens bright light.
REDUCE WHITE POINT
Reducing white point lessens the intensity of bright white light, which can be helpful for reducing glare and the intensity of super bright colors. I have mine set at 55%, though users who wish to make their screen brightness even dimmer on the lowest setting may have better results when setting their white point reduction to 75% or more.
Within the Display menu, users can also turn off automatic brightness and set a system wide dark mode theme.
Related links
- iPhone Accessibility Settings For Occipital Stroke
- How To Make iPad Accessible for Low Vision
- Enabling Temporary Accessibility Settings For iPad
Turn off animations and auto-play
Unexpected flashing lights or flashing transitions are the main barrier that I encounter when using my phone with light sensitivity. While I can turn off auto-play within device settings (see instructions below), some social media applications require users to manually turn off auto-play and animations as well.
Reduce flashing lights for Android
There is only one setting for Android that turns off animations. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Color and Motion > Remove Animations
For users sensitive to app transitions, animations, or movement, remove animation will turn off non-essential animations within the phone’s system interface. To further turn off auto-play settings for gifs and similar content, users will need to configure settings within specific apps (Messages, YouTube, social media, etc.). I recommend turning off Expressive Animations in Messages to reduce animations.
REDUCE FLASHING LIGHTS FOR IOS AND IPADOS
Open the Settings application and navigate to the Accessibility section to configure the following settings:
Motion
- Reduce Motion
- Prefer Cross-Fade Transitions
- Auto-Play Message Effects (turn off)
- Auto-Play Animated Images (turn off)
- Dim Flashing Lights
- Auto-Play Video Previews (turn off)
Another setting to turn off is Reactions for FaceTime, which can be done by doing the following:
- Open FaceTime
- Swipe down from the top right corner to open Control Center
- Under Video Effects, de-select Reactions
TURN OFF AUTO-PLAY ON SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
To turn off Auto-Play for Facebook:
- Open Settings & Privacy and select Settings
- Select Media
- Under Auto-Play, select Off or Never Autoplay Videos. Autoplay settings may need to be turned off on both the website and application
To turn off Auto-Play for Instagram:
- Open Settings and Activity
- Under Your App and Media, select Media Quality
- Select Use Less Cellular Data
To turn off Auto-Play for X (Twitter):
- Open Settings and Support and select Settings and Privacy
- Select Accessibility, Display, and Languages
- On the web application, select Data Usage and set auto-play to Never
- On the mobile application, select Display and Sound and turn off media previews
To turn off Auto-Play for TikTok:
- Open Settings and select Privacy and Security
- In the Content section, select Autoplay
- Select Never Play Videos Automatically
Related links
Adjust voice speed for text-to-speech
For users with light sensitivity that also benefit from text-to-speech or spoken content, it is important to consider how word-level or sentence-level highlighting may flash on the screen as information is read out loud at higher speeds.
There is no option for customizing highlighting as words are read out loud on Android. For iOS, this can be configured by opening Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content > Highlight Content
Related links
- How To Use Text-To-Speech With Low Vision
- How To Use Select-to-speak on Android
- Highlighting Information With Low Vision
Consider pairing phone with another device for screen-free use
If I notice I am more sensitive to bright lights due to fatigue, another option for making calls on my phone is to connect my phone to a smart speaker like the Amazon Echo or Google Home, which can be used entirely via voice. Another option is to use a tool like Gemini or Siri to dial phone calls, dictate texts, or have texts read out loud with a synthesized voice.
Related links
- Mainstream Technology and Low Vision: Smart Speakers
- Disability Accommodations For Fluctuating Eyesight
More considerations for smartphone accessibility settings for light sensitivity
- Sometimes, a gif in a group chat will slip through my auto-play settings and play automatically. If it’s a flashing animation, I will delete the message so that I don’t see it again.
- For users that are prone to dropping their phone when disoriented by flashing lights, make sure to choose a sturdy case— I share more tips in Mainstream Technology and Low Vision: Covers and Cases
- One of my friends had increased light sensitivity following a stroke, and benefitted from additional settings to improve the contrast of their device. Learn more in iPhone Accessibility Settings For Occipital Stroke
- Looking for more advice on buying a new smartphone? Read Mainstream Technology and Low Vision: Smartphones
This post on accessibility settings for photosensitivity is written by Veronica Lewis, M.Ed. and reposted with permission from Veronica With Four Eyes.
Published April 2017. Updated June 2025
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