Re: [csswg-drafts] Browser zoom unit for accessibility [css-values-and-units] (#6869)

This is the argument I'd like to put to rest. I used to agree, but I no longer think this argument has merit.

@clshortfuse wrote:
> To this day, Android users are affected by accessibility concerns. A bug since 2016 (!) still remains open titled: [Switch accessibility font scale factor to use page zoom instead of text autosizing](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=645717). The other bug filed regarding PWAs specifically has been stalled since 2019 for lack of a clear spec.

I think it's unlikely there will ever be a way to derive a _single_ reasonable font size for every page on the Web. Apple tried this initially with Dynamic Type in native apps which worked for most first-party apps, and with `-apple-system-body` which was opt-in for web apps, but there were so many native and web developers that didn't diligently test it, that it resulted in frequent user workarounds: hit a broken app with overlapping/unreadable/clipped large text, the user had to either remove it or change the font size for the entire system every time you used the app. It wasn't sustainable.

What _has_ worked is allowing the user to set app- and site-specific font sizes. iOS has controls to set a font size either for the system or specific to the native app. Likewise, Safari has a font-size controller that is site-specific. The same could be done for offline web apps on any platform, but the specifics of the user interface control to set the font size is a platform implementation detail.

Android could do something similar, allowing the user to opt-in to a comfortable and site-supported font size, rather than requiring authors to support an additional unit, since CSS already has the capability for scalable font sizes.

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Received on Monday, 17 April 2023 17:00:11 UTC