Accessibility Features and Settings
The high level of customizability and numerous clever features make the Vivaldi browser an excellent choice for those who need a browser to adapt to their unique needs. The accessibility-friendly settings and features help to make browsing easier and more comfortable for everyone.
Appearance
Theme
If none of the default or community-created themes hit the sweet spot, you can create your own custom theme with colors and settings that are easy on your eyes.
To create a custom theme, go to Settings > Themes > Library > New Theme.
Settings we recommend adjusting:
- Colors
- Color Saturation
- Color Contrast
- Transparency
You’ll find more information on the Help page about Themes.
User Interface Zoom
If the default size of the browser toolbars, including the icons on them, and the content on the browser’s internal pages and dialogues is too small on your computer’s screen, you can make them bigger in Settings > Appearance > User Interface Zoom.
Toolbar and Menu Customization
An uncluttered user interface consisting only of the necessary elements can help reduce both cognitive and physical effort. So it’s worth taking some time to move and remove toolbar components to create a configuration that fits your needs.
To customize the toolbars, go to the main 
Vivaldi menu > View > Customize Toolbar.
You’ll find more information on the Help page about Customizing Toolbars.
The same goes for the various application and context menus. They can be full of options that you don’t need or ordered in a way that doesn’t work for you.
To customize the menus, go to Settings > Appearance > Menu.
You’ll find more information on the Help page about Customizing the Application and Context Menus.
Web Pages
Web Page Zoom
Increasing the zoom level on web pages is probably one of the easiest ways to reduce eye strain.
Web page zoom can be adjusted, for example, from the right side of the Status Bar, by using Keyboard Shortcuts, or by holding down the Ctrl / ⌘ key while scrolling the mouse wheel.
Furthermore, you can choose whether you prefer zoom levels to be set per tab or per website. You can make your choice in Settings > Webpages > Default Webpage Zoom by either enabling or disabling “Use Tab Zoom”.
You’ll find more information on the Help page about Zoom options in Vivaldi.
Web Page Focus
You can choose to cycle through form elements only, or through all links and inputs in order of their appearance in the document. To control which page elements are reachable when moving using the Tab key, go to Settings > Webpages > Webpage Focus.
Website Appearance
If you prefer dark themes and want the web page content to match, go to Settings > Appearance > Website Appearance to set your preferences. You can even force web pages that don’t support a dark mode natively to be displayed in dark colors.
Fonts
While most web developers have set specific fonts and font sizes for their content, some (e.g. Wikipedia), have only specified the font family. For websites like that, you can choose your own preferred fonts.
To customize default fonts and font sizes in Vivaldi, go to Settings > Webpages > Fonts.
Reader View
Enabling Reader View on pages with long-form content creates a clutter-free reading experience, allowing you to focus on what’s important without any of the distractions. Furthermore, you can adjust the font style and size, line spacing, column width, and color scheme to make reading the text even more comfortable.
You’ll find more information on the Help page about Reader View.
Page Actions
Page Actions allow you to make adjustments to individual web pages, and to make browsing more effective and focused on your individual needs. Page Actions are custom filters that modify the look of a page, for example, grayscale, or sepia filters, focus, and hover highlights, and inline access key exposure.
Page Actions can be applied from the Status Bar or by using shortcuts.
You’ll find more information on the Help page about Page Actions.
Toggle Images and Animations
Visual content, especially the animated kind, can be disturbing. Luckily in Vivaldi, there are settings that allow you to block images from loading altogether and give you options to play looping animations just once or never.
To make your choices, go to Settings > Webpages > Play Image Animation / Load Images.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard Shortcuts are probably the most popular tool for efficient browsing. Nearly every action in the Vivaldi browser can be assigned its own keyboard shortcut and preset defaults can be changed to match your preferences. You can even use shortcuts comprised of a single key.
You’ll find more information on the Help page about Keyboard Shortcuts.
Spatial Navigation is a kind of keyboard navigation using Shift / ⇧ plus the arrow keys that allows you to move between interactive elements on the page by their proximity not by the document order like using the Tab key does. When using Spatial Navigation, the focused element has an orange border around it.
You’ll find more information on the Help page about Spatial Navigation.
Caret Browsing
Caret browsing allows you to navigate through web pages with the arrow keys on the keyboard similarly to Spatial Navigation. The difference is that your place on the page is not focused on specific interactive elements, rather on the text. Your location on the page is shown by a visible text cursor (caret) like in a text editor.
To enable caret browsing, go to Settings > Webpages > Caret Browsing. To quickly toggle the feature on or off, use the keyboard shortcut Shift+F7 / ⇧ F7.
When enabled, use the arrow keys to move around on the page. Hold down the Shift / ⇧ key and press the arrow keys to select text.
Quick Commands
Via the Quick Commands’ search dialog, you can navigate to any tab, open bookmarks and notes, search the web, and execute any browser command.
To use Quick Commands, simply press F2 / ⌘ E on your keyboard and start typing the search keyword or command name.
You’ll find more information on the Help page about Quick Commands.
Command Chains
Command Chains are groups of commands executed in a sequence, thus allowing you to do things in less manual steps. To create a Command Chain, go to Settings > Quick Commands > Command Chains.
You’ll find more information on the Help page about Command Chains.
Mouse Gestures
If instead of the keyboard you do the majority of your browsing with the mouse, you’ll find that using Mouse Gestures can significantly speed up your browsing. Actions like navigating back to the previous page, closing a tab, opening a link in a new tab, etc., simply require holding down the right mouse button while moving the mouse in a specific pattern for the action.
To view and customize Mouse Gestures, go to Settings > Mouse > Gesture Mapping.
You’ll find more information on the Help page about Mouse Gestures.
Rocker Gestures
Rocker Gestures are Mouse Gestures used to execute commands by clicking first the left mouse button followed quickly by a click on the right mouse button or vice versa. You can assign two of your favorite commands to Rocker Gestures.
To view and customize Rocker Gestures, go to Settings > Mouse > Rocker Gestures.
You’ll find more information on the Help page about Rocker Gestures.
Third-Party Features
Extensions
Most Extensions available on the Chrome Web Store work equally as well in Vivaldi. If you know of an extension that makes browsing easier for you, simply find it on the extension store and click on “Add to Vivaldi” on the extension’s profile.
You’ll find more information on the Help page about Extensions.
Screen Reader Software
Screen Readers convert elements on the Vivaldi browser’s user interface and web page content into speech, allowing visually impaired people to browse the web using keyboard navigation and shortcuts.
While Vivaldi can effectively be used with screen reader software, we admit there are a few rough edges we have yet to smooth out.
When you encounter accessibility issues while browsing with Vivaldi, we’d like to hear about them. Please report bugs to the team via our bug report form, or reach out to us on the Forum or social media channels.