I’ve been working on a small macOS app called Clarity (Color Accessibility Check). It started because I often needed to quickly check color contrast for accessibility while designing interfaces, but most tools I found were either too limited or didn’t support the color models I actually use when fine-tuning visual consistency.
Clarity lets you pick any color from your screen and view or adjust it using several perceptually uniform color spaces (LAB, LCH, and HCT), in addition to the usual RGB and HSL. Perceptually uniform spaces are useful because equal numeric changes in color values correspond more closely to how we actually see differences in color. That makes it much easier to tweak hues or lightness without unpredictable shifts, especially when you’re working toward accessible contrast ratios.
Once you pick two colors, the app shows their WCAG contrast ratio and compliance level (AA or AAA) clearly. It can also suggest alternative color pairs that meet accessibility guidelines while staying as close as possible to your original colors.
There’s a palette library to save and organize color pairs, plus import/export options for text, files, and even images, something I couldn’t find in other color accessibility tools.
Accessibility compliance is becoming increasingly important, not just ethically but legally. Both the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) make accessible digital design a requirement for many organizations. I wanted to build something that makes it easy to stay within those guidelines without slowing down the creative process.
I’d love feedback, especially from designers or developers who work with color accessibility regularly. Are there features you think would make this kind of tool more useful?
Thanks for reading!