Empty (blank) search redirects to index page

[Elpie]

If a user sends an empty search in the frontend WordPress loads the index page, without warning and without sending an error notice. This contravenes WCAG2.0 success criteria 3.3.1 & 3.3.3. See: ​http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/PR-WCAG20-20081103/#minimize-error

This was raised on the forums 6 months ago: ​http://wordpress.org/support/topic/218195

While this is a usability issue and the lack of an error message can cause problems for all users, it is also a significant accessibility issue - particularly for blind users who get no warning that the page has changed.

In the backend there is no redirect, but nothing happens. An error message should be displayed to alert the user that they need to input a search term.

This is not new behaviour in 2.8 but the increased attention to accessibility as well as to usability makes this omission more obvious.

[dhruvbaldawa]

The issue is resolved

[SergeyBiryukov]

#11330