this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2025
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Arctic
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Arctic is a Lemmy client for iOS built on pure Swift. It currently supports iOS 15+ and Lemmy v0.17+
Get the latest version on TestFlight, or check it out on the AppStore.
If you would like to support Arctic’s development, feel free to Buy Me A Coffee
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Interesting. Let me mess around with arctic themes. I do want to support increased contrast, but I wasn’t planning on theme support. But I could be convinced.
No pressure! I wanted to give it some visibility because it’s a significant need in the community (at least for iOS users, I can’t remember what the current Android lineup is like). It’s something that’ll prevent people from using the threadiverse at all, and likewise, allow them to use it when they can’t use platforms like Reddit. I wish Arctic was open source. At least Ice Cubes for Mastodon is.
It’s actually just as common for people to only be able to use low-contrast themes. There’s a range of conditions that cause it, such as light sensitivity (which can be debilitatingly severe) and astigmatism.
It's not so much a pressure thing as it is me learning how to be a product manager. My job as a PM is to sort through the noise and figure out what will actually improve the app.
For example, screen reader feels very clear cut to me. There's an obvious problem (a need to navigate the site without your eyes) and an obvious solution. I would have to understand other accessibility needs better to solve those problems.
How my choice of words "problem/solution" is ok. I think everyone is perfect the way they are, and what I'm really trying to say is "what are the minimal steps I can take to meet everyone where they're at".
TL;DR, how about we start with this. If I could only add 1-2 more themes, what 2 themes would benefit the app the most from an accessibility standpoint.
Yeah, I know what you mean.
Unfortunately many areas of accessibility don’t have such a one-size-fits-all solution. Low, medium and high contrast themes in both light and dark mode would be a good starting point and allow at least minimum use for most people, but it would still exclude many people. If you’re adding more themes than just light and dark mode, is it that much more time consuming to add customisable themes? The iOS Mastodon app Ice Cubes is open source and has similar theme customisation to Arctic, I’m not sure if it could be of any help.
‘Problem/solution’ is appropriate wording for technology, no one will interpret it ableistly! Inaccessibility is a huge problem. I’m not sure anyone feels fine just the way they are when they’re excluded from the majority of the internet and society at large though, haha.
It’s not a lot of work to add multiple themes. It’s more that everything I add need to test and maintain as I ship updates. I would love to grow the project and have more testers. Having people report accessibility bugs is super helpful.
I could use some help writing out what themes to add. Would you be willing to open a GitHub issue with all the themes listed? Feel free to provide comparables like “High contrast - See Arctic this theme”
Edit: or maybe I should just implement all of Arctic’s themes if you think they are great as is