Current Problems with Reflow

Originally, I wrote about fixed position headers, footers and floating
buttons. This is a current problem.

When I view pages at width 320px for left to right reading. Many sites fail
functionality because their fixed position items grow to obstruct the main
content of the page. This is a frequent problem on the Web today.

PDF has its own problems, but I have not encountered this issue with PDF
documents in a significant way.

Thank you all for work arounds.

I believe the primary problem is an assumption by developers that considers
viewports with narrow width (like 320 pixels) to be portrait mode. The
logical inference is that there is no serious loss if the headers or
footers grow. This assumption would be valid if the only viewports with
320px width were mobile devices. Sadly, that is not the case.

Now that 1.4.10 explicitly requires reflow with full functionality even at
320px width, we need to educate developers about the need to consider low
css resolution viewports that are in landscape mode. Perhaps we need a
specific technique. This would not require a change to the recommendation,
but it would give developers tools to address this problem.

Finally, I think accessibility auditors should call this out as a failure
of 1.4.10. I don't think that this needs to be done in a heavy handed way.
No new SC or formal fail case is needed. All we need is a clear technique
that helps developers do the right thing.



Conclusion: The exact problem is main content obstruction by fixed position
content. This occurs most in HTML/CSS/Javascript settings. I think a clear
technique to address the issue. Would do the trick.

Best, Wayne