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Re: 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) - Large-scale text

for

From: Jared Smith
Date: May 15, 2012 8:01AM

E.A.-

You are correct - increasing the text size is very useful for many
users, from those with low vision to those with various cognitive
disabilities. In order to be optimally accessible, a page should have
an adequate default text size (something that is not required by any
accessibility guidelines I'm aware of). It should also support
user-increased text sizes. WCAG doesn't require this. It allows page
zooming to meet the text resizing requirement. And it's pretty much
impossible to not support page zoom for HTML content. This means this
requirement can generally be ignored if you're simply seeking
conformance.

I would recommend reasonable support for text sizing - that the page
maintain readability and functionality when the text size is increased
to around 150%. If users need text bigger than this, they would almost
certainly be using zoom or a screen enlarger rather than or in
addition to moderate text sizing. It would also be advisable to meet
the WCAG requirement that the page support 200% zoom (which, again, is
nearly impossible to fail for HTML content).

The point in previous messages was that using pixel font sizes rather
than relative font sizes should not be considered a failure of any
WCAG success criteria because they are treated the same when resized,
etc.

Jared