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Use <mark> for search result highlights - #1391
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microbit-matt-hillsdon merged 2 commits intoNov 10, 2026
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Matched terms were styled spans, so the highlight was only visual. Render them as <mark> so screen readers can announce them, keeping the existing look by inheriting the text colour. In forced colours mode the highlights now use the system Mark colours instead of disappearing. Closes microbit-foundation#1249
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Interestingly while this gets a a11y pass here it seems change little, as VoiceOver on desktop doesn't announce and NVDA requires an option. Seems to be an intentional call not to clutter output. Worth having still: it was audit flagged. The force colours mode is the biggest practical win.
For any future screen-reader-related PRs, please take the time to check the behaviour in at least one of VoiceOver and NVDA.
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Closes #1249
Search highlights were styled spans, so the highlight was only visual. This renders matched terms as
<mark>so assistive technology can pick them up, and inherits the text colour so the look stays the same.markrole.Checked with typecheck, lint, unit tests, the documentation and accessibility e2e tests, and a build. I've checked the accessibility tree in Chromium but haven't yet tried it with a real screen reader, so a quick listen would be welcome.
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