Success criterion 1.4.12 · Level AA
Text Spacing
“I give my letters room to breathe, and your buttons chop the words in half.”
Success criterion 1.4.12 · Level AA
Text Spacing
No loss of content or functionality occurs when users increase line height, paragraph spacing, letter spacing and word spacing.
Principle 1: Perceivable · Guideline 1.4: Distinguishable
What each role can do
- Product manager
- Require layouts to survive user-adjusted text spacing.
- Designer
- Avoid fixed-height text containers; leave room for text to grow.
- Developer
- Let containers grow with content; avoid fixed heights and overflow: hidden on text.
- Tester
- Apply the WCAG text-spacing bookmarklet and check for clipped or overlapping text.
Once it is fixed
“My spacing, your layout, zero clipped words. Reading feels calm again!”
Next criterion: 1.4.13 Content on Hover or Focus