Accessible Autocomplete Versions Save

Breaking changes

Verify your code does not rely on removed polyfills

Following on from our previous announcement, the accessible autocomplete code is no longer transpiled and polyfilled to support IE8-10.

However, because the polyfills create or extend global objects, you might have other code in your service unintentionally relying on the inclusion of these polyfills. You might need to introduce your own polyfills or rewrite your JavaScript to avoid using the polyfilled features.

This change was introduced in pull request #612: Update packages, configs + Node.js 20.

Check for minor visual changes in the rendering of the component

We've made some style adjustments to the stylesheet shipped with the component to make its colours, height, line-height and padding match those of the latest version of GOV.UK Frontend's <input>.

If you're using this stylesheet:

• check if our style update affects the rendering of the component in your service, and adjust if necessary
• if you were adding to the default style's to match GOV.UK Frontend's input, look for CSS declarations you may now be able to remove

This change was introduced in pull request #644: Align CSS styles with GOV.UK Frontend.

New features

Options to add classes to parts of the component

Use these new options to add your own classes to parts of the component:

• inputClasses for the input element
• hintClasses for the suggestion hint (input element appearing when the text typed by the user matches the start of an option)
• menuClasses for the ul element listing the options

You can also add custom classes to the ul listing the options through the new menuAttributes option, providing a className or class property.

This change was introduced in:

• pull request #602: Add inputClasses option. Thanks to @andreyyudin for contributing this change.
• pull request #649: Update options for styling component inputs
• pull request #650: Update ways of configuring menu attributes

New class on the component's status

Use the new autocomplete__status class in your CSS (or <CSS_NAMESPACE>__status if you set the cssNamespace option) to customise the styles of the component's status element (hidden element that makes announcements to assistive technologies).

This change was introduced in pull request #620: Add className attribute to status component. Thanks to @lennym for contributing this change.

Fixes

• Pull request #621: Handle query change when the text length does not change. Thanks to @archferns for contributing this change.
• Pull request #591: Add menuAttributes to fix Axe's 'aria-input-field-name' error. Thanks to @mchughbri for contributing this change.
• Pull request #600: Fix null aria attributes. Thanks to @mark-roberts-ho for contributing this change.
• Pull request #606: Correct description of tStatusSelectedOption i18n option in README and tweak some wording for consistency with other parts of the README. Thanks to @ellamdav for contributing this change.

Fixes

• Pull request #512: Make sure highlighted option is distinguishable in forced colors mode

This release includes a fix to make it possible for the component to be used in a server side React environment.

Thanks @andymsuk for helping us with this release!

Changelog

Fixes

• Pull request #415: Make React bundle work server-side in a NodeJS environment.

This release includes fix for a bug that prevented users from clicking on options in certain circumstances.

Thanks @peterjaric and @edwardhorsford for their help with this release.

Changelog

Fixes

• Pull request #388: Set aria-selected as a string instead of a boolean to avoid being dropped.
• Pull request #400: Remove pointer events check.
• Pull request #406: Make hint padding match input padding.
• Pull request #407: Use a div element to wrap enhanced component.
• Pull request #410: Fix long clicks not selecting options.

This release fixes a bug that may impact you if you're using the accessible autocomplete multiple times on one page.

We recommend you update to the latest release using npm:

npm install accessible-autocomplete@latest

Fixes

• Pull request #379: Ensure multiple autocompletes on one page do not have conflicting id attributes

We recommend you update to the latest release using npm:

npm install accessible-autocomplete@latest

Breaking changes

You must make the following change when you migrate to this release, or your service may break.

Migrate to the new accessible focus state

The focus state now meets the new WCAG 2.1 level AA requirements.

You do not need to do anything if you’re using Sass.

If you’ve previously copied CSS from our code into your project, you must copy all the CSS from our accessible-autocomplete.min.css file into your CSS file.

If you’ve created custom CSS, you should check that your component meets WCAG 2.1 level AA requirements. You can read how we made the GOV.UK Design System focus states accessible.

Pull request #360: Update focus styles to meet WCAG 2.1 level AA non-text contrast requirements.

Fixes

Better compatibility with screen readers

The input field is now visible to all screen readers, because the input field now meets the Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) 1.0 standard instead of ARIA 1.1. ARIA 1.0 is better supported by the current versions of most screen readers.

Screen readers will now consistently tell users:

• when users have entered too few characters in the input field
• the correct number of search results, and what the results are
• which result users have highlighted
• how to use autocomplete in different screen readers - by reading hidden hint text

Screen readers will also now avoid telling users information they do not need to know after they highlight an option.

Thanks to Mark Hunter, Chris Moore and everyone at HMRC who worked on these improvements.

Pull request #355: Refinements to address accessibility issues