Dark Mode

that would be a good idea

There are many existing discussions here in the Support Community about dark mode.  (In general, it's often better to add your comments to an existing discussion about the topic rather than create yet another separate discussion on the same topic.)

In one Dark Mode discussion, KA Support Advocate Evan Lewis posted in May 2025 that adding dark mode to KA would require lots of resources and 'it’s unlikely that a native dark mode will be available in the foreseeable future.'  KA suggests the free open-source Dark Reader browser extension; 'it does not collect any user data. I’ve tested this extension myself and found that it works reasonably well on Khan Academy, especially when using the "Dynamic" theme generation mode.'

Good luck.
~ Janice, KA user

On 2026‑10‑11 09:28:00 +0000, Janice Holz wrote:

[…] KA suggests the free open-source Dark Reader browser extension; […]

That’s obviously a red herring. Many students use KA on school computers, which do not allow students to install anything. Of course, students could ask the sysadmins to install it, yet system‐wide rollout of browser extensions is a nuisance, it’s not gonna happen.

Kai Burghardt,

For how many school districts do you have personal experience with the response when students asked for a browser extension that is often used for reasonable ADA accomodations?
(I have none, so I made no claim as to how likely it is that a school would do that.)

If you're correct that schools won't do it, then groups that advocate for students need to put pressure on Khan Academy to prioritize things that matter.  I've seen little evidence that posts here on the Support Community change KA direction on anything.

Hello, KhanAcademy.

We would like to suggest dark mode for accessibility reasons. We have ASD and ADHD, and we are a system (Dissociative Identity Disorder). At times, when we're trying to learn, or switching, the bright light can make us have headaches, or feel overstimulated. We like to describe overstimulation as being "tazed" or "just gently tazed."

We think for people like us with sensory overwhelm and other neurodivergence, and disabilities, it would be good to have a dark theme. We would even suggest look at the Dark Reader for inspiration, though we feel this is not a good alternative to a true dark theme.

A true dark theme would be better as it would require less executive function steps to use (automatically switch to dark mode - it turns out there's some neat features in modern CSS/HTML - I thought you had to manually create the detection thingy!), and most importantly, help with our eyes. We aren't just neurodivergent. We have occular issues that are affected by the bright light.

We aren't criticizing you for having a website with a bright-only mode. We think that's pretty normal. But we just love your site, and love learning, and since we haven't had the chance to do much of that when we were younger, and we get to come out now, we'd like to do that in a way where it's as calm and gentle as possible.

We think you can do it! We would gladly help write some CSS and HTML. Or test and give feedback.

We think an extension is a good substitute for now, but we think having a real dark mode is the right direction, and should be the default and replace an extension, since an extension would only be a place holder.

We hope you understand we aren't asking because it would "look cool," but because it truly does help us stay calm and less dissociated or brain-tazed when we're doing cool math. 

We hope either way that our post reaches you. We probably won't respond immediately, because we tend to forget things and swap out. But we've been so excited to learn things lately, and we're so excited to come back to KhanAcademy! We just wish we didn't have to tell everyone and remember to coordinate getting an extension, since some of us don't tell the others, and some of us seem to not use it. 

Either way, we think it would be a good idea, and we are grateful we have a place to post about this. Have a good weekend, and thank you for the wonderful site so much! <3

Jacob 

Since this is an accessibility/disability issue for you, I suggest sending your information to their accessibility team at accessibility @ khanacademy.org
(I'm not convinced most of the posts in the Support Community ever get read by anyone at Khan Academy.)