Keyboard focus indicator has insufficient colour contrast (<3:1) on context menus in Light 2026:A11y_VisualStudioCode_Integrated browser_Context menus_NonTextContrast

[kapilvaishna]

GitHub Tags

#A11yTCS;#Visual Studio Code Client; #SH_Integrated browser features_Win32_JUNE2026;#DesktopApp;#FTP;#Win32;#A11ySev2;#A11yMAS;#WCAG1.4.11; #External:Chromium;
#eDAD:3P:Bug525612746; #ThirdParty; #ResolvedByTT; #External;

Issue Subcategory

Focus indicator low contrast

User Experience

Keyboard users with low vision cannot see where focus is located, making keyboard navigation essentially unusable. They cannot determine which element will receive their next action.

Repro Steps

Open VS Code > Open Integrated browser > Open Context menus > Observe the issue: Keyboard focus indicator has insufficient colour contrast (<3:1) on context menus in Light 2026

Actual Result

When navigating through context menu items using the keyboard, the focus indicator is displayed but has low colour contrast against the background in both Light 2026 . The contrast ratio is less than 3:1, making it difficult to visually identify the currently focused menu item.

Expected Result

The keyboard focus indicator should have a minimum contrast ratio of 3:1 against adjacent colours, ensuring clear visibility of the focused menu item in both Light and Dark themes.

How to Fix

Adjust the focus indicator color to achieve 3:1 contrast. Consider using a thick (2px+) outline with a contrasting color, or combine outline with box-shadow for visibility on varied backgrounds.

Environment details

Application Name: VS Code
VS Code version: 1.124.2
Edition Windows 11 Enterprise
Version 25H2
OS build 26200.8390

Note

• Please do not close this bug. This bug should only be closed by TCS, C+AI Accessibility tester after bug verification.
• "Check out Accessibility Insights! - Identify accessibility bugs before check-in and make bug fixing faster and easier."

Attachment

[vs-code-engineering]

Thanks for creating this issue! It looks like you may be using an old version of VS Code; the latest stable release is 1.124.2. Please try upgrading to the latest version and checking whether this issue remains.

Happy Coding!

[mrleemurray]

I am unable to replicate on macOS as the OS context menu is used:

@kycutler are you able to repro?

[kycutler]

Yes, this repro's on Windows / Linux -- we have to use the native menus in integrated browser due to the layering challenges. But Chromium has low contrast on its menus. E.g. in Chrome:

Edge shows a focus border when using the keyboard:

We're looking at doing the same, but it requires an upstream change in either Electron (which isn't ideal) or Chromium (which will take some time).

[kycutler]

Opened https://issues.chromium.org/issues/525612746

[meganrogge]

@kapilvaishna can we downgrade to sev3 please this as it's coming from upstream and blocked on their changes?