Fixed #35870 -- Made blank choice label in forms more accessible.

Added new constant django.db.models.fields.BLANK_CHOICE_LABEL for
an accessible and translatable blank choice label in forms.
Deprecated django.db.models.fields.BLANK_CHOICE_DASH constant.
Added the immediately deprecated transitional setting
USE_BLANK_CHOICE_DASH.

Co-Authored-By: Marijke Luttekes <mail@marijkeluttekes.dev>

3 files changed, 30 insertions, 6 deletions

diff --git a/docs/ref/forms/fields.txt b/docs/ref/forms/fields.txt
index 73faa8cc18..085b36a0e5 100644
--- a/docs/ref/forms/fields.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/forms/fields.txt
@@ -1384,7 +1384,7 @@ generating choices. See :ref:`iterating-relationship-choices` for details.
 
         By default the ``<select>`` widget used by ``ModelChoiceField`` will
         have an empty choice at the top of the list. You can change the text of
-        this label (which is ``"---------"`` by default) with the
+        this label (which is ``"- Select an option -"`` by default) with the
         ``empty_label`` attribute, or you can disable the empty label entirely
         by setting ``empty_label`` to ``None``::
 
@@ -1400,6 +1400,11 @@ generating choices. See :ref:`iterating-relationship-choices` for details.
         :class:`~django.forms.RadioSelect` and the
         :attr:`~ModelChoiceField.blank` argument is ``False``.
 
+    .. versionchanged:: 6.1
+
+        The default empty label was changed from ``"---------"`` to
+        ``"- Select an option -"``.
+
     .. attribute:: to_field_name
 
         This optional argument is used to specify the field to use as the value
diff --git a/docs/ref/models/fields.txt b/docs/ref/models/fields.txt
index 1cf521d621..4405d91daf 100644
--- a/docs/ref/models/fields.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/models/fields.txt
@@ -224,11 +224,16 @@ documentation.
 .. _field-choices-blank-label:
 
 Unless :attr:`blank=False<Field.blank>` is set on the field along with a
-:attr:`~Field.default` then a label containing ``"---------"`` will be rendered
-with the select box. To override this behavior, add a tuple to ``choices``
-containing ``None``; e.g. ``(None, 'Your String For Display')``.
-Alternatively, you can use an empty string instead of ``None`` where this makes
-sense - such as on a :class:`~django.db.models.CharField`.
+:attr:`~Field.default` then a label containing ``"- Select an option -"`` will
+be rendered with the select box. To override this behavior, add a tuple to
+``choices`` containing ``None``; e.g. ``(None, 'Your String For Display')``.
+Alternatively, you can use an empty string instead of ``None`` where this
+makes sense - such as on a :class:`~django.db.models.CharField`.
+
+.. versionchanged:: 6.1
+
+    The default blank label was changed from ``"---------"`` to
+    ``"- Select an option -"``.
 
 .. _field-choices-enum-types:
 
diff --git a/docs/ref/settings.txt b/docs/ref/settings.txt
index cca7b18f24..c4e2c6f2c3 100644
--- a/docs/ref/settings.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/settings.txt
@@ -3044,6 +3044,19 @@ the correct environment.
 
 .. _list of time zones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones
 
+.. setting:: USE_BLANK_CHOICE_DASH
+
+``USE_BLANK_CHOICE_DASH``
+------------------------------------
+
+.. versionadded:: 6.1
+.. deprecated:: 6.1
+
+Default: ``False``
+
+Set this transitional setting to ``True`` to revert back to the old default
+blank choice label in forms.
+
 .. setting:: USE_I18N
 
 ``USE_I18N``
@@ -3851,6 +3864,7 @@ File uploads
 Forms
 -----
 * :setting:`FORM_RENDERER`
+* :setting:`USE_BLANK_CHOICE_DASH`
 
 Globalization (``i18n``/``l10n``)
 ---------------------------------