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Re: WCAG 1.4.8: horizontal scrolling

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From: Jared Smith
Date: Jan 20, 2011 9:12AM

On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 8:52 AM, Dan Conley < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> So then, I'm left with the option of a fixed width pixel based layout,
> which is pretty much the opposite of what I've always read to do.

Pixel based widths aren't entirely bad (as opposed to pixel heights,
which very often problematic). As you note, it may be a good option
here. I think min- and max- width based on a percentage base generally
works better, though this is much more complex to code. Using ems for
widths rarely works well.

> Have I totally misunderstood things? It seems like some of the W3C's
> suggestions of how to meet the guidelines contradict each other.

This is why this is a Level AAA success criteria, and a bit of an odd
one in that - like they threw everything left over into one place. I
wouldn't at all stress about meeting every letter of all the
recommendations or you'll likely go crazy. You clearly understand the
issues, so implement those that you know to be most important. If you
can find a good balance between line length and limited horizontal
scrolling, do that.

Jared