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Thread: text contrast minimum for native widgets

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From: glen walker
Date: Fri, Jul 17 2020 8:37PM
Subject: text contrast minimum for native widgets
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If you use a native <select>/<option> element and don't change the
appearance, on chrome, safari, and firefox the dropdown list shows white
text on a blue background for the element that is selected. The blue that
is used on chrome and safari has a 3.2:1 ratio and the blue on firefox is
just below 4.5:1.

1.4.11 Non-text contrast has an exception "where the appearance of the
component is determined by the user agent and not modified by the author"
but 1.4.3 does not have that exception. So if you're using a native
element and the text contrast fails, you're responsible for changing the
native color?

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Sat, Jul 18 2020 2:44AM
Subject: Re: text contrast minimum for native widgets
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On 18/07/2020 03:37, glen walker wrote:
> If you use a native <select>/<option> element and don't change the
> appearance, on chrome, safari, and firefox the dropdown list shows white
> text on a blue background for the element that is selected. The blue that
> is used on chrome and safari has a 3.2:1 ratio and the blue on firefox is
> just below 4.5:1.
>
> 1.4.11 Non-text contrast has an exception "where the appearance of the
> component is determined by the user agent and not modified by the author"
> but 1.4.3 does not have that exception. So if you're using a native
> element and the text contrast fails, you're responsible for changing the
> native color?

I would say the exemption is implicit, as the rendering of the whole
widget is down to the user agent, and it SHOULD provide accessible
defaults. For 1.4.11 it needed to be made explicit as things like focus
outline do interact directly/show up on top of author-controlled
colours, so it had to be clarified that at that point, it's not *just*
the user agent that's responsible.

I've been known to normatively let <select>'s pass 1.4.3 but to mention
the problem nonetheless as a best practice for authors to address.

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

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From: glen walker
Date: Sat, Jul 18 2020 10:17AM
Subject: Re: text contrast minimum for native widgets
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Yes, that's what I've been doing, pointing it out but letting it pass but
the topic has been bugging me a while so I figured I'd see what others are
doing.

I've been known to normatively let <select>'s pass 1.4.3 but to mention
> the problem nonetheless as a best practice for authors to address.
>
>