Text Resize Accessibility Checker

WCAG 1.4.4 (Resize Text, Level AA) requires that text can be resized up to 200% without assistive technology, and without loss of content or functionality. This means users should be able to use their browser's zoom or text-size settings to double the text size while the page remains usable — no clipped content, no overlapping text, no horizontal scrolling (for content that does not require it), and no loss of functionality. Related criterion WCAG 1.4.10 (Reflow, Level AA, added in WCAG 2.1) requires that content reflows at 400% zoom (320px CSS width) without horizontal scrolling. These criteria serve the approximately 246 million people worldwide with moderate to severe vision impairment who routinely zoom or enlarge text to read web content. Low-vision users represent a far larger population than screen reader users.

Websites break at larger text sizes due to these patterns:

• Fixed-height containers: <div style="height: 200px; overflow: hidden"> — when text grows, it gets clipped. Fix: use min-height instead of height, or overflow: visible
• Absolute positioning of text: Text in absolutely positioned elements does not reflow with the rest of the page, causing overlap at larger sizes
• Fixed-width containers with no wrapping: width: 400px; white-space: nowrap; overflow: hidden; — text is truncated. Fix: allow wrapping and use responsive widths
• Text in images: Images of text cannot be resized by browser text-size settings. Use real text wherever possible (WCAG 1.4.5)
• Viewport units for font size: font-size: 2vw alone ignores user text-size preferences. Fix: use font-size: clamp(1rem, 2vw, 1.5rem) to set minimum and maximum sizes that respect user settings

Design and code for text resize from the start:

• Use relative units: rem and em for font sizes, not px. While modern browsers can zoom pixel-sized text, rem respects the user's root font-size preference: font-size: 1rem (16px default, scales with user settings)
• Flexible layouts: Use CSS Grid and Flexbox with fr units and minmax() to create layouts that accommodate larger text without breaking
• Test at 200%: Open your site, press Ctrl+/Cmd+ until the browser shows 200% zoom. Check every page for clipped text, overlapping elements, and lost functionality
• Avoid !important on font-size: User stylesheets and browser settings need to override your font sizes. !important can prevent this
• Responsive breakpoints: Ensure your responsive design handles not just narrow viewports but also zoomed wide viewports where the effective viewport shrinks

CompliScan identifies patterns that commonly break at larger text sizes: fixed-height containers with overflow hidden that contain text, elements with white-space: nowrap combined with overflow clipping, and CSS that prevents text scaling. The scanner also checks for content that overflows its container at normal zoom levels — a strong indicator it will break at 200%. Each finding includes the specific CSS property causing the issue and an AI-generated fix suggesting responsive alternatives. Full 200% zoom testing requires manual verification — automatically rendering every page at multiple zoom levels is computationally expensive. CompliScan catches the code patterns most likely to fail and prioritizes them by severity. For complete WCAG 1.4.4 compliance, supplement with manual zoom testing of your most critical pages. This is required for the European Accessibility Act and ADA Title II deadline of April 24, 2026. Try a free scan to identify potential text resize failures.