Released Enhancements
Search Widget Accessibility
We’ve made a series of important accessibility enhancements to the Search Widget, making it more reliable and user-friendly for everyone, especially those using assistive technologies. These updates address several workflow and usability issues reported by customers and identified through accessibility audits.
What’s changed and why it matters:
The Search Widget now ensures every input field is uniquely and correctly labeled, so screen readers always announce the right field name, even when multiple search widgets are present.
We’ve added a proper “search” landmark role, making it easier for screen reader users to jump directly to the search area using keyboard shortcuts.
Status messages for autocomplete suggestions are now announced in a less disruptive way and only when relevant, reducing unnecessary noise for screen reader users.
“Did you mean” suggestions are now fully announced, providing clear context and guidance for corrections.
Keyboard navigation is fully restored and consistent, so users can move through suggestions and interact with the widget without getting stuck.
Redundant or conflicting ARIA attributes have been removed, ensuring more predictable and standards-compliant behavior.
On pages where autocomplete isn’t available, the widget now behaves as a plain search field, avoiding confusion and unnecessary ARIA roles.
The combobox role is only present when autocomplete is active, aligning with accessibility best practices.
Search Result Asset Controls
You now have more control over which asset types appear in your site’s search results. Editors can choose to include or exclude Images, PDFs, and Other Files (like Word or Excel documents) directly from the search widget settings, making it easier to ensure only the most relevant content is shown to residents.
By default, only PDFs are included, but you can adjust these options as needed. If no asset types are selected, no assets will appear in search results, giving you full flexibility over search behavior.
