Google Page Speed Accessibility Issue: insufficient contrast ratio

Technical Q&A
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Topic summary

A user running the Dawn theme encounters a Google PageSpeed accessibility error flagging insufficient text-to-background contrast ratio. The issue appears to be a timing problem during page load—screenshots show text and background initially rendering in the same color before fully loading with proper contrast.

Key Details:

  • No custom code or plugins are in use
  • Manual color testing confirms adequate contrast once fully loaded
  • The error seems related to how styles load during initial page render

Responses & Status:

  • One commenter suggests ignoring the issue, noting Google PageSpeed continues flagging contrast errors even after corrections
  • The original poster prefers finding a workaround since Google considers this a critical error
  • Multiple solutions were apparently proposed (referenced in post #4), including prioritizing text style loading, though the poster is hesitant about this approach due to Google’s recommendations about default fonts
  • The discussion remains open with the user planning to test suggested fixes
Summarized with AI on November 1. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

In the Google Dev Page Speed Analyzer I am getting an accessibility issue where it thinks my text is not contrasted enough from the background. However i have texted the colours and it is.

It seems as though on the page load the text colour is not loading in time and making it look like the contrast ratio is not high enough. as you can see from the screen shot in some of the screen shots google provides, the text ands the background are the same colour however once they fully load they are not.

I am running the dawn theme, with no plugins, no custom coding.

Any thoughts or idea for a fix would be much appreciated.

https://xekryp-7z.myshopify.com/

Screenshot 2025-02-10 at 3.21.07 PM.png
Screenshot 2025-02-10 at 3.21.07 PM.png1900×1418 368 KB

2

Hi @AusSimon

I already changed the color according to the requirement of Google Page Speed to fix sites before, and they still mention the same error after my change, so I recommend you ignore this issue.

3

Thanks Dan. This is not bad advice, but google does consider this error critical, so if i could get a simple work around I would prefer that.

4

Thank you for this detailed reply, I will give the first one a try and hopefully that will be a good fit.

Though it was a good suggestion, I don’t like the idea of prioritizing loading text styles, I believe google still suggest allowing default font to run until the page has fully loaded. However that said, i am using default browser fonts sot his should not be causing my issue.

This third suggestion looks like something i could also play with so thank you for that also.