Disclaimer & safety
Please read this before using the tool, especially for a premature infant or anyone with a known vision condition.
This is not a medical device. The Contrast Card Generator is an informed enrichment / accessibility tool built on published research. It does not diagnose, treat, screen, monitor, or test any condition, and it is not a substitute for professional vision or medical care. Nothing here is medical advice.
Supplement, never replace
High-contrast prints are one small enrichment among many. They supplement — they never replace — face-to-face interaction with the people in a child’s life, and they never replace professional care. If you take one thing from this page: a caregiver’s face and attention is the richest visual stimulus there is (more here).
Follow your professionals
Where a viewer has specific medical or vision needs, your clinicians’ guidance always overrides anything this tool suggests. In particular:
- Premature infants & ROP
- Babies born prematurely need retinopathy-of-prematurity (ROP) screening and follow-up on the schedule set by their paediatric ophthalmology / neonatology team. This tool is not part of that. When designing for a premature baby, we use corrected age (adjusting for how early they were born), but that is a conservative design choice, not a clinical assessment.
- CVI & low vision
- For cortical/cerebral visual impairment (CVI), low vision, or any diagnosed condition — in a child or an adult — work with the relevant eye-care, low-vision, or CVI professionals. The tool can produce reduced-complexity, high-contrast, preferred-colour, single-target layouts, but it does not assess vision or prescribe an intervention.
- Any health question
- If you’re unsure whether or how to use visual stimulation for a particular person, ask their healthcare provider.
Physical safety
These prints are used around babies and vulnerable people, so the physical cautions matter as much as the images:
- Mount securely and keep the sleep space clear. Nothing should be able to fall onto or near a baby, and printed material must not compromise safe sleep. See mounting safely & safe sleep.
- Safe materials. Use non-toxic inks and materials, avoid small parts that could detach and become a choking hazard, and prefer matte finishes to reduce glare.
- Watch for overstimulation and keep sessions short. Follow the viewer’s cues and stop when they disengage — reading the “I’m done” signals.
No overclaiming
We try to describe benefits carefully and proportionally to the evidence, and to separate established science from practitioner guidance and our own design opinions — see “Reading the evidence.” We avoid “boost your baby’s brain” hype and fear-based messaging. Where evidence is thin or mixed, the blog says so.
Your content & your printer
- Uploaded images. You are responsible for the images you upload and for having the right to use them; the tool is for personal use. (Images are converted on your device and never uploaded — see Privacy.)
- Print scale. Correct physical size depends on your printer being set to “Actual size / 100%.” Verify it once on the check-your-printer page (or switch the 100 mm bar on for a card under Advanced settings). We can make the file exact; we can’t control your print dialog.
Using this tool is entirely at your own discretion and risk, under your professionals’ guidance. It is provided as-is, without warranties, for informational and enrichment purposes.