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Visual Comfort

Screen overlays, text customisation, and display settings for eye comfort.

What’s in This Section

Visual Comfort helps reduce eye strain and make screens more comfortable to view. Adjust colours, contrast, fonts, and motion to match your visual preferences.

Features: Screen Color Overlay, Text Customisation, Reduced Motion, Media Control

Screen Color Overlay

What It Does

Applies a transparent colour layer over the entire screen. Helps with visual processing, reduces glare, and can make reading easier.

How to Enable

  1. Click the AssisT icon
  2. Expand Visual Comfort section
  3. Toggle Screen Overlay ON
  4. Choose a colour

Or press Alt+Shift+O to toggle.

Keyboard Shortcuts

ShortcutAction
Alt+Shift+OToggle Screen Overlay

Overlay Options

ColourHelps With
Warm SepiaReduces glare. The recommended starting point
Soft YellowPopular for dyslexia
PeachWarm tint, gentler than yellow
CreamPaper-like, low contrast shift
Cool BlueCan improve focus for some readers
Soft GreenGeneral eye comfort
Light PinkScotopic sensitivity, Irlen syndrome
LavenderAnother cool option for glare

Settings

  • Overlay Color - one of the eight above, Warm Sepia by default
  • Overlay Intensity - how strong the tint is, 10% to 90%, 30% by default

Tips

  • Start at a low intensity (20-30%) and increase only if it helps
  • Warm Sepia and Soft Yellow are the two most commonly helpful for reading
  • The overlay works inside Google Docs and Google Sheets from version 1.0.0 onwards
  • A warm tint at a low intensity is a reasonable stand-in for a blue-light filter late in the evening

Text Customisation

What It Does

Changes how text appears across all websites. Adjust the font and the spacing between lines, letters, words and paragraphs for comfortable reading.

How to Enable

  1. Click the AssisT icon
  2. Expand Visual Comfort section
  3. Toggle Text Customisation ON

Available Fonts

FontBest For
System defaultUses the website’s own font
LexendDesigned for reading fluency, clean and open. The default
OpenDyslexicDyslexia-friendly, weighted bottoms
Comic Sans MSFamiliar, informal, easy to read
ArialClean sans-serif

Settings

  • Font - choose from the five above, Lexend by default
  • Line Spacing - 1.0 to 3.0, 1.5 by default
  • Letter Spacing - 0 to 0.5em, 0.12em by default
  • Word Spacing - 0 to 0.5em, 0.16em by default
  • Paragraph Spacing - 1.0 to 4.0em, 2.0em by default
  • Apply to all windows - carry the same text settings into every window, off by default

Want full control? See Text Customisation Deep Dive.

Reduced Motion

What It Does

Disables animations, transitions, and moving content across websites. Reduces visual overwhelm and prevents motion sickness.

How to Enable

  1. Click the AssisT icon
  2. Expand Visual Comfort section
  3. Toggle Reduced Motion ON

What It Affects

  • Page transitions and animations
  • Scrolling effects (parallax, smooth scroll)
  • Animated images and GIFs
  • Hover effects and transitions
  • Video auto-play (combined with Media Control)

Tips

  • Works with the browser’s prefers-reduced-motion setting
  • Some sites may not fully respect this setting
  • Combine with Media Control for complete stillness

Media Control

What It Does

Blocks auto-playing videos and audio across websites. Prevents unexpected sounds and visual distractions.

How to Enable

  1. Click the AssisT icon
  2. Expand Visual Comfort section
  3. Toggle Media Control ON

What It Blocks

  • Auto-playing videos (with or without sound)
  • Background audio
  • Video advertisements
  • Animated hero sections

Settings

Auto-play Blocking is a single switch with no sub-settings. Turn it on and video and audio stop starting by themselves; media you start yourself plays as normal.

For Educators & Parents

Why Visual Comfort Matters

For students with visual processing difficulties:

  • Colour overlays reduce visual stress
  • Text customisation improves readability For students with sensory sensitivities:
  • Reduced motion prevents overwhelm
  • Media control eliminates surprises
  • Customisable appearance matches needs

For students with specific conditions:

  • Colour overlays for Irlen syndrome
  • OpenDyslexic font for dyslexia

Classroom Tips

  1. Start with colour overlay — Simple, non-disruptive, helpful for many
  2. Try OpenDyslexic font — Popular but not universally preferred
  3. Enable Reduced Motion — Helps focus during lessons

Student Preferences Vary

Important: What helps one student may not help another. Allow students to:

  • Try different overlay colours
  • Test different fonts
  • Adjust their own settings

Privacy Note

All Visual Comfort settings work locally. No visual preferences or usage data is collected.

Learn More