diff --git a/scripts/md2html/md2html.js b/scripts/md2html/md2html.js
index 34ca8ae4ef..9bcc10f249 100644
--- a/scripts/md2html/md2html.js
+++ b/scripts/md2html/md2html.js
@@ -36,13 +36,13 @@ const md = require('markdown-it')({
   highlight: function (str, lang) {
       if (lang && hljs.getLanguage(lang)) {
           try {
-              return '<pre class="nohighlight"><code>' +
+              return '<pre class="nohighlight" tabindex="0"><code>' +
                   hljs.highlight(str, { language: lang }).value +
                   '</code></pre>';
           } catch (__) { }
       }
 
-      return '<pre class="highlight '+lang+'"><code>' + md.utils.escapeHtml(str) + '</code></pre>';
+      return '<pre class="highlight '+lang+'" tabindex="0"><code>' + md.utils.escapeHtml(str) + '</code></pre>';
     }
 });
 
@@ -216,7 +216,6 @@ for (let l in lines) {
     // recognize code blocks
     if (line.startsWith('```')) {
         inCodeBlock = !inCodeBlock;
-        line += '\n'; // fixes formatting of first line of syntax-highlighted blocks
     }
 
     if (line.indexOf('<a name="')>=0) {
diff --git a/tests/md2html/fixtures/basic-new.html b/tests/md2html/fixtures/basic-new.html
index b79429bbec..61e00cb36b 100644
--- a/tests/md2html/fixtures/basic-new.html
+++ b/tests/md2html/fixtures/basic-new.html
@@ -7,16 +7,13 @@
 <p>Text for first section</p>
 <section><h2>Heading 3</h2>
 <p>Text for first subsection</p>
-<pre class="nohighlight"><code>
-<span class="hljs-punctuation">{</span>
+<pre class="nohighlight" tabindex="0"><code><span class="hljs-punctuation">{</span>
   <span class="hljs-attr">&quot;foo&quot;</span><span class="hljs-punctuation">:</span> <span class="hljs-literal"><span class="hljs-keyword">true</span></span>
 <span class="hljs-punctuation">}</span>
 </code></pre>
-<pre class="nohighlight"><code>
-text/plain
+<pre class="nohighlight" tabindex="0"><code>text/plain
 </code></pre>
-<pre class="highlight "><code>
-no language
+<pre class="highlight " tabindex="0"><code>no language
 </code></pre>
 <table>
 <thead>