Mobile Device Overlay Features

Anyone who struggles with glare, discomfort, eye strain, or blurry words when using a phone or tablet, should know about the colored filter built-in to their device. The right color filter can increase comfort, fluency, and accuracy when reading and using your device; meaning you may be able to read and work on your device for longer periods of time without strain or fatigue.

Coloured Overlays Built Into Digital Devices

Most of today’s mobile devices (phones and tablets) now have a built-in colored overlay feature. It’s a fantastic feature that can make using a phone or tablet much more comfortable for anyone who struggles with glare, eye strain, headaches, or blurry words. This built-in feature is customizable, easy to use, and will work no matter what app you’re using on your device. So, you can pick the color and density that works best for you, turn it on or off at will, and not have to worry about any incompatibility issues when your device’s operating system updates.

How to Find Overlay Feature

Here's How to Turn it On

iPhone/iPad: Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations and select Color Filters. When you turn on Color Filters, you’ll want to ignore the four preset color schemes they offer and instead select the last option, “Color Tint,” to create your own color filter. “Color Tint” will then give you two sliders (hue and intensity) to manipulate until you reach the filter that works best for you.
Android (may differ slightly by brand of device): Go to Settings>Accessibility>Visibility Enhancements and Click “Add Color Filter.” Select your preferred color and adjust the density using the scroll bar.

Mac Computers

We’d like to give some big props to Apple for extending the color tint accessibility setting to their MAC computers! It works similarly to how the feature works on the phone and tablet, meaning you can have the relief of color on your computer screen at the tap of a button. No more need to try and piece together multiple colored overlays to fit the size of your screen, this digital color tint is built right in! See the links below for specific instructions on how to turn on the Color Tint filter on your Mac.