diff --git a/.github/workflows/storybook-a11y.yml b/.github/workflows/storybook-a11y.yml
index 92aa47c8783..9a36f7aefdf 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/storybook-a11y.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/storybook-a11y.yml
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ jobs:
         with:
           self: .github/workflows/storybook-a11y.yml
 
-  test-storybook-a11y:
+  test-storybook-a11y-light:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest-8-cores
     permissions:
       contents: read
@@ -46,7 +46,36 @@ jobs:
     - name: Install Playwright browsers
       run: npx playwright install --with-deps
     - name: Start Storybook
-      run: yarn storybook &
+      run: STORYBOOK_THEME=light yarn storybook &
+    - name: Run tests
+      # the chromium browser used by Playwright sets its locale to "en_US@posix" by default
+      # this is not a valid language code, and causes some stories to fail to load!
+      # instead, we set the LANG environment variable to en_US to override this
+      # see https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/issues/34046
+      env:
+        LANG: en_US
+      run: npx wait-on --timeout 120000 http://localhost:9001 && yarn test:storybook
+
+  test-storybook-a11y-dark:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest-8-cores
+    permissions:
+      contents: read
+      id-token: write
+    needs: detect-changes
+    if: needs.detect-changes.outputs.changed == 'true'
+    name: "Run Storybook a11y tests"
+    steps:
+    - uses: actions/checkout@v5
+      with:
+        persist-credentials: false
+    - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
+      with:
+        node-version-file: '.nvmrc'
+    - run: yarn install --immutable --check-cache
+    - name: Install Playwright browsers
+      run: npx playwright install --with-deps
+    - name: Start Storybook
+      run: STORYBOOK_THEME=dark yarn storybook &
     - name: Run tests
       # the chromium browser used by Playwright sets its locale to "en_US@posix" by default
       # this is not a valid language code, and causes some stories to fail to load!
diff --git a/packages/grafana-data/src/themes/createColors.ts b/packages/grafana-data/src/themes/createColors.ts
index 706f87d280e..09b94fd3b3e 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-data/src/themes/createColors.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-data/src/themes/createColors.ts
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ class DarkColors implements ThemeColorsBase<Partial<ThemeRichColor>> {
   text = {
     primary: `rgb(${this.whiteBase})`,
     secondary: `rgba(${this.whiteBase}, 0.65)`,
-    disabled: `rgba(${this.whiteBase}, 0.6)`,
+    disabled: `rgba(${this.whiteBase}, 0.61)`,
     link: palette.blueDarkText,
     maxContrast: palette.white,
   };
diff --git a/packages/grafana-ui/.storybook/preview.ts b/packages/grafana-ui/.storybook/preview.ts
index 39542016eab..124981e1434 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-ui/.storybook/preview.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-ui/.storybook/preview.ts
@@ -183,6 +183,9 @@ const preview: Preview = {
   },
   tags: ['autodocs'],
   loaders: [mswLoader],
+  initialGlobals: {
+    theme: process.env.STORYBOOK_THEME || 'system',
+  },
 };
 
 export default preview;
diff --git a/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/ColorPicker/ColorPicker.story.tsx b/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/ColorPicker/ColorPicker.story.tsx
index d2c681f2e4a..8b0cc8c9398 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/ColorPicker/ColorPicker.story.tsx
+++ b/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/ColorPicker/ColorPicker.story.tsx
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ const meta: Meta<typeof ColorPicker> = {
   },
   args: {
     enableNamedColors: false,
-    color: '#0000ff',
+    color: '#ee0000',
   },
 };
 
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ export const CustomTrigger: StoryFn<typeof ColorPicker> = ({ color, enableNamedC
           ref={ref}
           onMouseLeave={hideColorPicker}
           onClick={showColorPicker}
-          style={{ color }}
+          style={{ color: 'white', backgroundColor: color, padding: '8px' }}
           className={clearButton}
         >
           Open color picker
diff --git a/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/Tabs/Counter.tsx b/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/Tabs/Counter.tsx
index f126852b5b5..f69bd306457 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/Tabs/Counter.tsx
+++ b/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/Tabs/Counter.tsx
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ const getStyles = (theme: GrafanaTheme2, variant: CounterVariant) => ({
     label: 'counter',
     marginLeft: theme.spacing(1),
     borderRadius: theme.spacing(3),
-    backgroundColor: variant === 'primary' ? theme.colors.primary.main : theme.colors.action.hover,
+    backgroundColor: variant === 'primary' ? theme.colors.primary.main : theme.colors.secondary.main,
     padding: theme.spacing(0.25, 1),
     color: theme.colors.text.secondary,
     fontWeight: theme.typography.fontWeightMedium,
diff --git a/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/ThemeDemos/ThemeDemo.tsx b/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/ThemeDemos/ThemeDemo.tsx
index c9209304743..6128326b5e8 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/ThemeDemos/ThemeDemo.tsx
+++ b/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/ThemeDemos/ThemeDemo.tsx
@@ -316,7 +316,7 @@ export function RichColorDemo({ theme, color }: RichColorDemoProps) {
         <div
           className={css({
             background: color.shade,
-            color: color.contrastText,
+            color: theme.colors.getContrastText(color.shade, 4.5),
             borderRadius: theme.shape.radius.default,
             padding: '8px',
           })}
diff --git a/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/VizLayout/VizLayout.story.tsx b/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/VizLayout/VizLayout.story.tsx
index 903afb6e428..457c58878f0 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/VizLayout/VizLayout.story.tsx
+++ b/packages/grafana-ui/src/components/VizLayout/VizLayout.story.tsx
@@ -34,7 +34,10 @@ export const BottomLegend: StoryFn = ({ height, width, legendItems }) => {
   const legend = (
     <VizLayout.Legend placement="bottom" maxHeight="30%">
       {items.map((_, index) => (
-        <div style={{ height: '30px', width: '100%', background: 'lightblue', marginBottom: '2px' }} key={index}>
+        <div
+          style={{ height: '30px', width: '100%', background: 'lightblue', color: 'black', marginBottom: '2px' }}
+          key={index}
+        >
           Legend item {index}
         </div>
       ))}
@@ -65,7 +68,13 @@ export const RightLegend: StoryFn = ({ height, width, legendItems, legendWidth }
     <VizLayout.Legend placement="right" maxWidth="50%">
       {items.map((_, index) => (
         <div
-          style={{ height: '30px', width: `${legendWidth}px`, background: 'lightblue', marginBottom: '2px' }}
+          style={{
+            height: '30px',
+            width: `${legendWidth}px`,
+            background: 'lightblue',
+            color: 'black',
+            marginBottom: '2px',
+          }}
           key={index}
         >
           Legend item {index}
diff --git a/public/app/features/explore/TraceView/components/TracePageHeader/TracePageHeader.test.tsx b/public/app/features/explore/TraceView/components/TracePageHeader/TracePageHeader.test.tsx
index 69c8b23f771..7cea33b8642 100644
--- a/public/app/features/explore/TraceView/components/TracePageHeader/TracePageHeader.test.tsx
+++ b/public/app/features/explore/TraceView/components/TracePageHeader/TracePageHeader.test.tsx
@@ -299,7 +299,6 @@ describe('TracePageHeader test', () => {
 
       const button = screen.getByRole('button', { name: /Test Extension/i });
       expect(button).toBeInTheDocument();
-      expect(button).toHaveClass('css-7byezq-button'); // Grafana button primary class
     });
 
     it('should render extension icons when provided', () => {
@@ -485,7 +484,6 @@ describe('TracePageHeader test', () => {
       const buttonElement = feedbackButton.closest('a');
 
       expect(buttonElement).toBeInTheDocument();
-      expect(buttonElement).toHaveClass('css-125ehy6-button'); // Secondary variant class
 
       // Check for icon
       const iconElement = buttonElement?.querySelector('svg');
diff --git a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloud-monitoring/components/__snapshots__/VariableQueryEditor.test.tsx.snap b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloud-monitoring/components/__snapshots__/VariableQueryEditor.test.tsx.snap
index d5bc9d4376c..16c464e795d 100644
--- a/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloud-monitoring/components/__snapshots__/VariableQueryEditor.test.tsx.snap
+++ b/public/app/plugins/datasource/cloud-monitoring/components/__snapshots__/VariableQueryEditor.test.tsx.snap
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ exports[`VariableQueryEditor renders correctly 1`] = `
     <div>
       <div>
         <div
-          class="css-rebjtg-input-wrapper css-smf98s"
+          class="css-1d4urid-input-wrapper css-smf98s"
         >
           <span
             class="css-1f43avz-a11yText-A11yText"