[joedolson]

In progress ticket to fix issues with Windows High Contrast Mode focus styling.

• Adminbar search input (no focus state in WHCM)
• Select inputs .wp-core-ui select has no outline.
• The use of the deprecated pseudoclass -moz-focusring causes transparent text in select elements on focus. The pseudoclass has been mapped to equate to focus-visible, and shows as that in the inspector; this changed how it impacts the element, and needs to be removed.
• Adminbar submenu Edit Profile/username combo link (focus state has insufficient height)
• Select input dropdown arrow remains dark in high contrast mode.
• All button focus states are very subtle, and hard to spot.
• Theme browser navigation and close buttons have no :focus state
• Plugin information tabs missing outline

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/45910

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This Pull Request is for code review only. Please keep all other discussion in the Trac ticket. Do not merge this Pull Request. See GitHub Pull Requests for Code Review in the Core Handbook for more details.

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The following accounts have interacted with this PR and/or linked issues. I will continue to update these lists as activity occurs.

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[joedolson]

I'm inclined to handle the adminbar issue separately, as it will require some more significant adjustments, and is a different class of problem than the others.

[afercia]

Test ping to @joedolson

[robelsust]

Code Review

Tested and reviewed PR #13944 across Chrome and Firefox with forced-colors: active emulated and verified against the Core CSS standards.

The implementation is solid:

• outline: 2px solid transparent cleanly restores focus visibility in WHCM without affecting regular UI styles.
• Bumping from 1px to 2px brings elements in line with WCAG 2.2 SC 2.4.13 (Focus Appearance) and Core's 2px focus border standards.
• The forced-colors: active SVG arrow adjustment resolves the dark dropdown arrow issue on dark high contrast themes (Aquatic, Desert, Night Sky).
• Removing the obsolete -moz-focusring transparent text rule is safe and prevents selected text disappearing in high contrast mode.

Two small observations to finalize this PR:

1. buttons.css (Fresh color scheme and Login screen):
   The button change in _mixins.scss updates the alternate color schemes, but the default Fresh color scheme and wp-login.php load src/wp-includes/css/buttons.css. In buttons.css, lines 165 (.button:focus) and 292 (.button-primary:focus) still declare outline: 1px solid transparent. Updating those two rules to 2px will ensure buttons are consistently 2px across all admin color schemes and login screens.

2. Whitespace in _mixins.scss:
   Line 77 in src/wp-admin/css/colors/_mixins.scss has a space before the tabs on /* Visible in Windows High Contrast mode */, which triggers a space before tab in indent warning on git diff --check.