I just want to say... I still hate this change.

It's the colour of dried blood. When the blood, sweat and tears of content creation are done, what's what you're left with.

Hello,

I’m writing regarding the recent interface update that introduced prominent bright red elements throughout the UI.

For many users this may simply be a design preference, but for neurodivergent users — particularly people on the autism spectrum or those with sensory processing sensitivities — highly saturated colours such as bright red can cause significant visual stress and distraction. This isn’t a subjective complaint; sensory sensitivity to colour and contrast is well documented in research on autism and cognitive accessibility, and it is one of the reasons modern accessibility guidance encourages offering calmer or customisable UI themes.

At the moment, the new colour choices make the interface genuinely difficult for me to work with for extended periods. I’ve used Descript for a long time and I genuinely like the platform — which is why I’m reaching out first rather than simply leaving.

However, if the current interface remains the only option, I will unfortunately have to cancel my renewal and move back to my previous editor purely for accessibility reasons. That isn’t something I want to do, as Descript has otherwise been an excellent tool.

Accessibility best practice — including guidance aligned with WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) — generally encourages providing user-selectable themes or reduced-stimulus interfaces so people with sensory sensitivities can work comfortably. Many modern platforms now offer multiple themes for exactly this reason.

A simple solution could be:

• Allowing users to switch back to the previous colour scheme, or

• Providing an alternative low-stimulus / neutral theme

I’m also a YouTube creator who regularly covers technology tools and workflows. I would much prefer to be able to talk positively about how responsive Descript is to accessibility feedback. I’m therefore giving you the opportunity to address this before I end up having to make a video explaining workarounds or alternatives for users who struggle with the new interface.

I genuinely hope a solution can be found, because I would strongly prefer to continue using and recommending Descript.

Thank you for taking accessibility concerns seriously, and I look forward to your response.

Kind regards,

Andy

Descript team - between the color change and the Squadcast > Rooms shift, this is just one more nail in a long chain of nails in a coffin of changes you've made that seem wholly disconnected with your user base. Extremely disappointing.

True, true, true. You should change the accent colors, not the entire background. No other film editing company has gone that way in case of making dark mode unusable. Even DaVinci Resolve had the 'blue' background option by default, but let user change to the saturation neutral one.

this red tint is terrible for video editing. it interferes with our eyes ability to discern color. it makes it feel like my monitor is broken. gives me a headache. i hate it. please descript, stop trying to fix what isnt broken. is this what all the price increases have been funding??

Guys, really - just bring back dark mode. What is this? The text appears blurry to my eyes with the color scheme.

This color really sucks for a video editing app. Video can have any kind of colors in the video. Do I really need to be getting distracted by the color conflict between my video and the app's color?

I've been using the app for many hours this week and it's despite the color change. Please don't take my usage or the usage of your users as enjoying or accepting this change.

Please give me option to change back to gray. Or as soon as there is any alternative that can do what descript can do, I will switch.

I HATE this change. PLEASE, please change it back or allow me to customize.

I'm an artist working in accessibility and advocacy spaces. I urge the DeScript team to realize how for every vocal complaint there are often an exponent of people who won't take the time to reach out who will instead simply stop interacting with the platform.

I came here to request a color change setting in Preferences, too, because people with synesthesia are very highly represented in audio spaces. I have polymodal synesthesia and while it may sound dramatic, with synesthesia (https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/a-brief-200-year-history-of-synesthesia/) the red overlay is about as close to torture as a person can get inside an application. I definitely cannot spend as much time in the app now: I'll have to start looking for alternatives if they don't give us a Preferences setting soon.

We -need- to make workspaces accessible and usable for everyone - not just a symbolic artistic flourish which isn't considered pragmatically. I'm saying this as an artist, myself. A color like red has to be a setting which can be changed, not a default.

Agreed. Changing your brand's color scheme from blue to this ugly red/purple is one (bad) business decision, but changing the darkmode to it as well is unforgivable. I literally can't do my job because I can't look at the screen without my eyes hurting. WTF are you guys thinking? Giving you a week to revert while I start looking for alternative editing platforms.