1.4.12 Text Spacing and navigation mechanisms

[detlevhfischer]

Hi,
we get a lot of questions whether 1.4.12 Text Spacing applies not just to content, but also to navigation mechanisms. Would requirements like 1.5 line-height apply to every and all navigation mechanism or do you see it scoped to inline content? I guess the answer is "applies to all", but I 'd like to hear others on that, because it has a major impact on design.

[patrickhlauke]

navigation mechanisms are "content" as well

content (Web content)
information and sensory experience to be communicated to the user by means of a user agent, including code or markup that defines the content's structure, presentation, and interactions

https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/#dfn-content (emphasis on "and interactions" mine)

[patrickhlauke]

and the design requirement itself is, as a reminder, not that a design uses that spacing, but rather that if a user (e.g. using user style sheets, or an extension, or similar) sets those spacings, the design doesn't become unusable/content doesn't become unreadable (in essence, that containers expand properly, things don't overlap, things don't get cut off with overflow:none, etc). so almost a variation of the old "text-only resize doesn't break things" (though mostly nowadays I test for full-page zoom only)

[alastc]

I guess the answer is "applies to all"

Yep, that was the original intent and my reading of the final language.

[alastc]

Official WG response (Feb 26 2019 survey and call):

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The SC does apply to all the content, including text within navigation. It has to, as the scenario behind this SC is that people over-ride the styling of the website, not that the website has to use those values by default. That means when people over-ride the styling of the site with the values from the SC, the text expands, and if needed wraps without breaking or losing content, including navigation.