Color contrast of placeholder text

[Andrea-Guevara]

References

• Fixes [Accessibility] Increase of color contrast on parts of site #3809

Description

Improving the color contrast of the placeholder text and the descriptive text “Filter results by typing the first few letters”

Instructions for Reviewers

List of changes in this PR:

• The text-muted class has been removed from the small/explanatory text placeholder in the starts-with-text component.
• The color of the placeholder text in the global styling file “_global-styles.scss” has been adjusted.

Check the color contrast of the placeholders with an accessibility tool!

Checklist

• My PR is created against the main branch of code (unless it is a backport or is fixing an issue specific to an older branch).
• My PR is small in size (e.g. less than 1,000 lines of code, not including comments & specs/tests), or I have provided reasons as to why that's not possible.
• My PR passes ESLint validation using npm run lint
• My PR doesn't introduce circular dependencies (verified via npm run check-circ-deps)
• My PR includes TypeDoc comments for all new (or modified) public methods and classes. It also includes TypeDoc for large or complex private methods.
• My PR passes all specs/tests and includes new/updated specs or tests based on the Code Testing Guide.
• My PR aligns with Accessibility guidelines if it makes changes to the user interface.
• My PR uses i18n (internationalization) keys instead of hardcoded English text, to allow for translations.
• My PR includes details on how to test it. I've provided clear instructions to reviewers on how to successfully test this fix or feature.
• If my PR includes new libraries/dependencies (in package.json), I've made sure their licenses align with the DSpace BSD License based on the Licensing of Contributions documentation.
• If my PR includes new features or configurations, I've provided basic technical documentation in the PR itself.
• If my PR fixes an issue ticket, I've linked them together.

[hostle83]

Hi @Andrea-Guevara, just tested this and Silktide still flags the placeholder text and label text as problematic. If you use the Silktide plugin in your browser and run the accessibility checker on this page, you should see what I mean. The ratio is still well below 4.5:1.

[Andrea-Guevara]

Good morning @hostle83, I hope you're well!

The problem is with the border, it's too thin. If we increase the border of the input, the problem is solved.

We would do this as follows:

.form-control, .page-link {
border: 2px solid $gray-700;

&:disabled {
    color: lighten($gray-700, 10%);
}
&::placeholder {
    color: $gray-700;
}
&:focus {
    box-shadow: none;
    outline: 2px solid lighten($gray-700, 10%);
    outline-offset: 2px !important;
}

}

If you like the idea, I can adjust the pull.

[hostle83]

Hi @Andrea-Guevara, that looks much better to me. If @tdonohue doesn't have any objections, please go ahead and adjust the PR. Thank you!

[hostle83]

Hey Andrea, I discussed this with @tdonohue and you can please go ahead and adjust the PR. Thank you!

[hostle83]

Apologies for taking a while to get back to you on this, @Andrea-Guevara
I was able to test it and it looks good, it now passes all accessibility tests in Silktide and Wave!

[hostle83]

Looks good and passes all accessibility tests

[tdonohue]

@Andrea-Guevara : I gave this a look today. While it does solve the basic issues, the thicker border around input boxes looks very odd on some pages, because it's right next to other fields that still have a thin border. Here's some screenshots of what I see:

Pagination buttons have intermixed borders. Some thick, some thin

Search results has thick border for input, but thin border for "All of DSpace"

Browse by Date has thick border for input, but thin border for year/month:

I also find the thick border quite odd looking on the Submission form. It looks like all the fields are bolded or highlighted (notice how all the sections having a faint border makes all the fields look bolded)

I don't have a recommendation here yet. But, I feel the darker border is not "matching" well with the rest of the DSpace site. We may need to see if there's a way to make it look less bold or less thick. Or we need to make everything else just as thick (but I'm not sure about that approach either).

The changes to the placeholder text look fine to me though. It's just the new border to these form fields that looks odd. So, another option would be to revert the border changes (for now) until we come up with a better solution & just fix the placeholder text.