fix(a11y): keep keyboard-focused search suggestion visible (WCAG 2.4.11)#412
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WanjohiSammy wants to merge 2 commits into
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fix(a11y): keep keyboard-focused search suggestion visible (WCAG 2.4.11)#412WanjohiSammy wants to merge 2 commits into
WanjohiSammy wants to merge 2 commits into
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The navbar search box was driven by two keyboard navigators at once (legacy Swiftype and the ARIA ComboboxAutocomplete), and the suggestion list had no height cap so the whole page scrolled to reveal lower options. Together these let the keyboard-focused suggestion be obscured. Cap the suggestion list to the viewport and scroll it internally (the standard ARIA combobox pattern) so the page never scrolls and the input stays in view, and make the combobox the single navigator that keeps the visible highlight in sync with aria-selected. Enter still selects the highlighted suggestion. Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
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Problem
WCAG 2.4.11 Focus Not Obscured (Minimum). When a user types in the top-navbar search box and arrows through the autocomplete suggestions, the keyboard-focused suggestion could be scrolled off-screen (obscured), because the page does not reliably keep it in view. This is most visible on short or zoomed-in viewports where the suggestion list is taller than the visible area.
This completes the earlier partial fix in #406 (
scroll active search suggestion into view), which did not fully resolve the issue across browsers and arrow directions.Root cause
The navbar search input is driven by two keyboard navigators at once:
jquery.swiftype.autocomplete.js) - owned the visible highlight (activeclass) and Enter selection.combobox-autocomplete.js) - ownsaria-selected/aria-activedescendantand scroll-into-view.Fix
Make the suggestion list scroll internally (the standard ARIA combobox pattern) and make the combobox the single keyboard navigator.
Before
After