dusk.li Overview
What is dusk.li?
Dusk.li is a website that rates websites based on their accessibility in terms of their support for Dark Mode.
168 websites in the datastore. Last updated: .
What is Dark Mode?
Dark mode is defined by the Bureau of Internet Accessibility as follows:
Dark modes and themes are extremely popular and they’re frequently touted as an accessibility solution. While the term “dark mode” can have different meanings for different developers, the basic idea is simple: Instead of displaying dark-colored text over a light background, a dark mode inverts the color scheme to display light-colored text over a dark background. This can create more contrast between the content and the background, limiting eyestrain and improving content readability.
As that page also states, Dark Mode is not a panacea — while it helps with several conditions, it can also hinder others, especially if the dark mode colour theme has a low contrast ratio.
A truly accessible site from a Brightness and Contrast perspective must meet the following criteria:
- Dark mode is supported
- Dark mode recognises the system setting for light or dark
- Optionally, Dark mode can be manually overridden
- Site contrast is acceptable as assessed by pa11y against WCAG2AA criteria (failure to scan the site will be shown as BLOCKED with the same score as FAIL)
- Optionally, the site supports custom themes, ideally without requiring a login
How are sites discovered?
Sites are added to the catalogue automatically by the a-scanner-duskli scanner, which runs daily. Each run aggregates URLs from the following sources before scanning:
| Source | Description |
|---|---|
| Curated input list | A static list of sites committed directly to the scanner repository |
| Existing catalogue | All domains already in the catalogue are eligible for a rescan |
| Tranco Top-1M | The top 500 domains from the Tranco web ranking list (fetched at runtime) |
| Majestic Million | The top 500 domains from the Majestic Million list (fetched at runtime) |
| Review requests | URLs submitted by anyone via a scanner issue — these trigger an immediate on-demand scan |
Domains scanned within the last 90 days are skipped automatically during the daily run. Review requests bypass this and are scanned immediately, subject to a 7-day per-domain cooldown.
How do I add or amend site information?
The website is hosted at https://dusk.li and the data behind it is maintained in YAML files in the dusk-li-data repository.
Anyone can submit a pull request to request an addition of or change to a website in the catalogue. To request an automated scan of a specific site, open a review request issue on the scanner repository.
How are sites rated?
Each site has the following information recorded:
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| URL | e.g. https://www.example.com |
| Dark Mode Support | None | Manual | Auto (0 Points | 1 Point | 2 Points) deduct half a point if the entire site doesn’t support dark mode |
| Contrast Accessibility | FAIL (or BLOCKED) | PASS (0 Points | 1 Point) |
| Rating | Total of the above scores e.g. 2/3 |
| Date Last Reviewed | Date in format YYYY-MM-DD |