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The following is a list of notes and resources related to addressing issues related to requests to address font scaling/resizing in WCAG 2.0.

Background

• Issue summary - "Font/scaling" sort term
• Subgroup: Katie, David, Sorcha, Bengt, Ben, Loretta

New Level 2 SC under Guideline 1.4 (proposed)

A mechanism is available to change the scale of visually rendered text content.

Sufficient Techniques

• Ensuring that text can be resized in user agents that support text resizing
• Provding options within the content to resize text (ex. style-switchers or in-page controls to increase font size)
• Avoiding font sizes smaller than user agent default
• Using relative rather than absolute units for text content (refer to Using em or percent for properties that need to change)

Advisory Techniques

• Providing large fonts by default
• Avoiding the use of text in raster images
• Using px for properties that do not need to be changed [1]

Failure Techniques

• Failure of SC 1.4.N due to encoding font size information in a way that overrides the accessibility features of user agents

New Level 3 SC under Guideline 1.4 (proposed)

When the scale of visually rendered text is changed, content is reflowed in a way that does not require the user to scroll horizontally.

Sufficient Techniques

• Using liquid layouts

Advisory Techniques

• Ensuring that line length does not interfere with readability
• Specifying max-width in ems (allows line length to increase when fonts are scaled)

Resources

• CssLayouts
• About fluid and fixed width layouts
• Accessible CSS
• More...

To Do Items and Issues

• draft HTM documents for new SC
• Is OS magnifaction (ex. Windows Magnifier) a "mechanism"? If yes, how do we make it clear that something a user can do would be a sufficient technique?
  • Can we scope out OS magnification as a sufficient by saying something like (... without requiring the user to invoke operating system wide magnification settings OR ... a user-agent supported mechanism ?)

Rough notes regarding how this addresses issues in this category

Issues with 'FONT' sort term

• 564 - We have added 2 SC and have included this as a sufficient technique for 1.4.N.
• 1067 - We have included the following success criterion... However, the working group did not feel that it was appropriate to ban absolute units since there are a number of situations (margins, padding, etc.) where the use of absolute units does not have a negative impact on the accessibility of the content.
• 1256, 941, 469, 1437(inlcude link in resources), 659, - We have included the following SC
• 2 issues remain suggesting that we include details about justification and overuse of style