Disabled primary button not readable outside the default admin color scheme

[david.binda]

The "light gray" (I'm bad at colours) used for text of disabled primary button outside the default color scheme (which is using lighter shade of blue) is unreadable. I've noticed that on widgets page in wp-admin, but it can be reproduced elsewhere (eg.: in customizer).

I'm attaching screenshots demonstrating the issue in individual admin color schemes shipped with 5.3.

Also, the light blue on darker blue background in the default color scheme does not seem to make a sufficient contrast from the accessibility point of view (per ​https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/?fcolor=66C6E4&bcolor=008EC2 ). But I'm not an expert in this field.

[audrasjb]

Hello and thank you for this ticket,

We already spotted some issues with alternate color scheme and fixed them for the most important parts of the UI.

However, please note that alternate color schemes aren't accessibility ready, even before 5.3.

By the way, disabled states could clearly be improved for each alternate color scheme. It wasn't looking good before 5.3 CSS changes, and it's a good thing that 5.3 helped to raise that kind of issues :)

Milestoning this ticket to 5.3.1 so it could be hopefully addressed as a regression (even it wasn't super accessible in the past).

Cheers,
Jb

[david.binda]

Thanks for the very kind response @audrasjb :)

However, please note that alternate color schemes aren't accessibility ready, even before 5.3.

Got it, did not know that.

However, even the default color scheme seems to have issues with contrast ratio for buttons in disabled state. Per ​https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/?fcolor=66C6E4&bcolor=008EC2 . Just wanted to make sure it has not been missed (I perhaps should have split the report into separate tickets).

[afercia]

To clarify: text that is part of disabled controls has no contrast requirement. See ​https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#contrast-minimum

[afercia]

This changed in in [46241] see #34904.

Though the disabled buttons contrast for alternate schemes isn't great in WordPress 5.2 and previous versions as well, I wouldn't be opposed to revert the change to the background color, preserving the new "flat" style of the buttons.

48396.diff​ does that and 48396-for-testing.diff​ can be used for testing in the "Profile" page, where it adds a couple buttons right underneath the alternate color schemes selection.

Worth noting this was reported also by @johnjamesjacoby and is in the to-do list of adjustments to implement for the next minor release. However, since it's a two lines change and basically reverts to the previous styling, I'd like to propose to commit this now in 5.3. /Cc @audrasjb

[audrasjb]

Ectoplasm

[audrasjb]

Midnight

[audrasjb]

Ocean

[audrasjb]

Sunrise

[audrasjb]

@afercia I tested the patch on my side, and I'm pretty confident it's worth doing it in 5.3. I will ask for decision (and hopefully a second committer review) during today's devchat.

The scope of the change is pretty limited so I personally think this 2-lines CSS change should land in 5.3.

[azaozz]

This looks more like a "regression fix", lets add it to 5.3.

+1 for 48396.diff.

[afercia]

In 46575:

Accessibility: Restore the primary buttons original background color for alternate color schemes after [46241].

Props david.binda, audrasjb, azaozz.
See #34904.
Fixes #48396.