Accessibility

Accessibility in DetentShell is checked by the build, not by policy. Every release runs an automated scenario that walks the same UI Automation tree Narrator uses; if an interactive control is missing its name, the build fails. The unit suite computes WCAG AA contrast for every text-and-background pair in every theme, High Contrast included, and a failing pair fails the build the same way. Editor state (caret, selection, folds, zoom), the breakpoint gutter including disabled breakpoints, and the console’s full text are exposed through UI Automation, and the release tests read those same exposures.

Other tools in this space have done serious accessibility work. VS Code documents its screen-reader support, and Windows Terminal’s UI Automation layer came from years of work at Microsoft. What we haven’t seen elsewhere among PowerShell editors is accessibility checks that run automatically and fail the release build — that part, as far as we know, is ours. For a procurement review, the evidence is the test suite itself: the scenario results and contrast tests come with every release.

Everything is keyboard-reachable with ISE gestures. Screen readers get descriptive names on all toolbar controls, the editor’s live caret, selection, fold, and zoom state, the breakpoint gutter’s full set including which breakpoints are disabled, and the console’s entire text through the Value pattern. Themes, High Contrast included, are WCAG AA contrast-tested per text-background pair in the unit suite. If you use Narrator: the toolbar announces actions (“Run Script”, not “button”), and the editor’s status reports position as you move.

If you use a screen reader or just prefer the keyboard, DetentShell works without a mouse. Every button says what it does out loud, F-keys drive running and debugging, and the High Contrast theme keeps everything readable. You aren’t using a reduced version of the tool; it’s the same product through a different channel.

Contrast is verified against WCAG AA (4.5:1) per theme in the test suite, and UI Automation name coverage is asserted per release. These are build gates: a regression fails the release, not a backlog item.