Improve Scale Bar Customization and Accessibility

[Laura]

Idea:
I would like to see expanded customization options for the scale bar in ArcGIS applications. Currently, there are only a few preset styles available, and they often have poor contrast, which can make them difficult to read—especially when designing accessible applications.

As someone working to make applications more accessible, I’ve found that the limited styling options create challenges for users with visual impairments or when maps are used in varying backgrounds.

It would be extremely helpful to have more control over the scale bar’s appearance, such as:

• Custom background colors (e.g., a white background)
• Adjustable text and line colors (e.g., black text and borders)
• Border styling and thickness options
• Greater contrast control to meet accessibility standards

For example, being able to display a scale like “1:3,762” with a white background and a black border would significantly improve readability.

Why this matters:
Enhanced customization would allow developers to design more accessible and visually clear maps, aligning with accessibility best practices and improving usability for all users.

[OwenGeo]

At this time, we do not have plans to make scale bar colors specifically customizable. But the scale bar colors are currently derived from your theme colors, and there is already a good amount of flexibility available to choose colors when you create a theme.

We did, however, notice the scale bar text color was a bit lighter than the rest of the text in the credits bar, so in yesterday's release, the colors for the scale bar were adjusted to increase contrast.

Please let us know if this improvement helps resolve some of the issues you noticed.

[Laura]

@OwenGeo

I know themes can make a slight difference. For a lot of companies, you can only adjust your theme settings so much while still staying within your brand colors. If I check this against a contrast checker, it doesn’t pass unless the text is bold. Having a hue around it wouldn’t change that. Honestly, just making the strip at the bottom of this sidecar customizable would fix the issue. If it can be white rather than my themes orange.