Technique G188:Providing a button on the page to increase line spaces and paragraph spaces

Applicability

Any technology.

This technique relates to 1.4.8: Visual Presentation (Sufficient).

Description

Many people with cognitive disabilities have trouble reading text that is single spaced. A button that increases the line height will help them read the content. In order to retain the separation of paragraphs, the space between paragraphs should also increase so that it is at least 1.5 times as high as the line spacing.

This technique can be used in combination with a style switching technique to present a page that is a conforming alternate version for non-conforming content. Refer to C29: Using a style switcher to provide a conforming alternate version and Understanding Conforming Alternate Versions for more information.

Examples

Example 1

Use standard style page switching and have a button or link on the page that switches the stylesheet. The new stylesheet contains a rule to increase the line height and a class to increase the paragraph spacing.

              p {line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 2em;}

Other sources

No endorsement implied.

Tests

Procedure

  1. Check that there is a button or link on the page that increases the size of the line height and the paragraph spacing, which is labeled as such.
  2. Activate the button or link.
  3. Check that the button or link increases the line height to at least 1.5 (150%)
  4. Check that the button or link increases the paragraph spacing at least 1.5 times greater than the line spacing.

Expected Results

  • Checks #1, #3 and #4 are true.