Ensure That Text Spacing Set Through Style Attributes Can Be Adjusted with Custom Stylesheets

Yotam Flohr
Researcher
Blind Low vision Hearing Mobility
WCAG 2.1 Level AA

Written and researched for humans by humans

Yotam Flohr
Researcher
Ritvik Shrivastava
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Web accessibility standards require that text spacing set through style attributes can be adjusted with custom stylesheets.

Why It Matters

Some people with cognitive disabilities have trouble tracking lines of text when a block of text is single-spaced. By providing spacing between 1.5 to 2, it allows them to start a new line more easily once they have finished the previous one.

Fixing the Issue

Developers should ensure that inline text spacing must be adjustable with custom stylesheets.

Good Code Example

Code example
<!-- style attribute includes font-size property --> <p id="pass1" style="font-size: 200%">I stepped on a Corn Flake, now I'm a Cereal Killer...</p> <!-- style attribute includes line-height property --> <p id="pass2" style="line-height: 1.5;"> On a scale from one to ten, what is your favorite color of the alphabet.</p> <!-- style attribute includes letter-spacing property --> <p id="pass3" style="letter-spacing: 50px;"> The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog</p> <!-- style attribute includes word-spacing property --> <p id="pass4" style="word-spacing: 10px;">A group of 24 Caterpillars has 694 legs</p> <!-- style attribute includes word-spacing, letter-spacing, and line-height properties --> <p id="pass5" style="word-spacing: 20ch; letter-spacing: 50rem; line-height: 3;">Look, a distraction!</p> Copy

Bad Code Example

Code example
<!-- style attribute includes forced line-height property --> <p id="fail1" style="line-height: 1.5 !important;">Banana error</p> <!-- style attribute includes forced letter-spacing property --> <p id="fail2" style="letter-spacing: 100em !important;">We need more cheeeeeeessseeeee!!!</p> <!-- style attribute includes forced word-spacing property --> <p id="fail3" style="word-spacing: -.4ch !important;">The cheese grater is in the way!</p> <!-- style attribute a word-spacing property, a forced letter-spacing property, and a line-height --> <p id="fail4" style="word-spacing: 200%; letter-spacing: 50rem !important; line-height: 3;">Yo, Darth Vader</p> Copy