Re: [csswg-drafts] [css-overflow] Line-clamp and screen readers (#12859)

The same question probably also applies to `overflow`, maybe in combination with `text-overflow`.

> I think that content made invisible to sighted users using `line-clamp` should also be hidden from screen-reader users.

I am not sure about that. Line clamping is often used to harmonize layout, e.g. when you have several article teasers on a page or you have a list/table with titles in it. In those cases authors often limit the number of lines or the width of the column to avoid "fringing", i.e. visually cluttering the page. Though often that effect is only meant to be visual and authors sometimes display the full text in a tooltip.
In such cases, I'd expect a screen reader to read the full text.

On the other hand, if an author clamps a full text that would otherwise span many lines to just two or three, it might make sense to also hide that from screen readers. The question then is, what they are supposed to output in those cases. Just stopping in the middle of a sentence or even a word seems pretty bad for UX.

Sebastian

-- 
GitHub Notification of comment by SebastianZ
Please view or discuss this issue at https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/12859#issuecomment-3340695474 using your GitHub account


-- 
Sent via github-notify-ml as configured in https://github.com/w3c/github-notify-ml-config

Received on Friday, 26 September 2025 22:33:24 UTC