Update to zoom content

Hi everyone,

I’d just like to draw people’s attention to a thread on github [1] that has resulted in an alternative approach to the zoom-content SC.

To summarise, the current text is:
“Content can be zoomed to an equivalent width of 320 CSS pixels without loss of content or functionality, and without requiring scrolling on more than one axis, except for parts of the content which require two-dimensional layout for usage or meaning.”

The comments (including other people’s on the thread) brought up that:

  *   The 320px aspect is testable, but implies that you can pass at 101% if it fits into 320px. It may lead to people not testing the in-between aspects.
  *   The language is difficult to understand.
  *   You can pass with scrolling in 1 direction even if that impacts reading (which I think Jason brought up previously).

About 30 comments later<https://github.com/w3c/wcag21/issues/335#issuecomment-334468667>, we got to this longer alternative:

“For content with horizontal lines of text, content can be zoomed up to 400% from a starting width of 1280 CSS pixels without loss of content or functionality, and without requiring horizontal scrolling to read horizontal lines of text.

For content with vertical lines of text, content can be zoomed up to 300% from a starting height of 960 CSS pixels without loss of content or functionality, and without requiring vertical scrolling to read vertical lines of text.

Parts of the content that require two-dimensional layout for usage or meaning are excepted.”

The advantages are:

  *   Simpler language (we think, but new eyes would help);
  *   Uses a starting point + zoom, so stronger implication of the method;
  *   Captures the requirement that you shouldn’t have to scroll to read better.

I assume we’ll need to do a CFC, but before that would anyone else like to comment on the thread?

1] https://github.com/w3c/wcag21/issues/335


Cheers,

-Alastair

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www.nomensa.com<http://www.nomensa.com/> / @alastc