Simple in theory: Why resizing text for accessibility is more complex than it looks.
7/22/2026 4:32:22 PM
Content Author: Office of Accessibility
Digital accessibility ensures everyone can read and use online content, regardless of how they interact with technology. For example, people with low vision need to be able to resize text and content.
Both help ensure content remains usable when users increase its size, particularly for people with low vision or certain mobility disabilities.
We've written about the Resize Text and Reflow success criteria before (see the Resources section below). This time, however, we found ourselves asking a different question: How are these two criteria related? For example, if a web page works correctly when magnified to 400%, can you conclude it conforms to both SC 1.4.4 (Resize Text) and SC 1.4.10 (Reflow)?
That simple question led us down a series of rabbit holes. As we dug deeper into the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), we discovered that answering it required a better understanding of how WCAG defines conformance and how techniques support—but do not determine—that conformance.
In this article, we'll share what we learned about what it really means to conform to a WCAG success criterion.
Note: As for the 400% question, here's a technical discussion from 2018 on W3C's Github: "Are Reflow, Text Size and Orientation cumulative?"
As its name indicates, SC 1.4.4: Resize Text focuses specifically on text – not all elements on the page. So that raised a few questions:
To answer those questions, we first need to understand what it means to conform to the WCAG. There are multiple ways to evaluate conformance with SC 1.4.4. A page only needs to meet the success criterion through one valid method to conform. If one testing approach reveals an issue but another valid approach demonstrates that the criterion is met, the page still conforms to the success criterion.
That doesn't mean you should ignore the issue. The results of the failed test may identify opportunities to improve the user experience, even though they don't indicate a WCAG conformance failure.
A key part of answering our question is understanding how WCAG defines "techniques."
The WCAG documentation explains:
"Techniques are examples of ways to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). They are not required to meet WCAG. Content can satisfy the normative requirements of WCAG even if it does not use any of the documented techniques."
WCAG reinforces that point with an important note:
"W3C cautions against requiring W3C's sufficient techniques. The only thing that should be required is meeting the WCAG 2 success criteria."
In other words, techniques are helpful guidance—not requirements. They demonstrate one or more ways to satisfy a success criterion, but conformance depends on meeting the success criterion itself, not on following a specific technique.
So, when testing a technology for accessibility, both situations can be true:
If that happens, it is possible the technology can still have room for improvement. But as far as declaring conformance to WCAG, it conforms.
So, with that in mind, let's take a closer look at how to check for conformance to SC 1.4.4. The WCAG Quick Reference site lists several "Sufficient Techniques," including:
The most commonly used test for SC 1.4.4 comes from Technique G142. It involves a few simple steps:
Technique G179 takes a different approach by focusing exclusively on text. Unlike browser zoom, only the text changes size—other page elements, such as images, remain the same. Because SC 1.4.4 is specifically about resizing text, this technique offers an important way to evaluate conformance.
Here's the official procedure:
The actual steps are more complex. For example:
Using these settings, we found a web page in which the menu text doubled in size, while the body text didn't.
But when we used technique G142, the entire page zoomed appropriately and remained functional.
So, here's where we landed:
Don't get hung up on the name of a success criterion. Although SC 1.4.4 is called Resize Text, that doesn't mean users must be able to resize only the text for a page to conform. If users can zoom the entire page to 200% without loss of content or functionality, the page conforms to SC 1.4.4.
Know what you're trying to prove. You have to read the success criteria carefully. There's a reason the WCAG Quick Reference site mentions under every single success criterion's "sufficient techniques" section that: "Note: Other techniques may also be sufficient if they meet the success criterion."
Conformance testing is not the same as ensuring a good experience for every user. Conformance is the floor. You may find that you have more to do to ensure an accessible, equitable user experience.
Accessibility testing is a skill. Not every Quality Assurance (QA) person can perform accessibility testing. Your QA testers need to learn exactly what to test and how to test to meet accessibility conformance. That means taking the time to study for and earn certifications such as IAAP's Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS) or DHS's Trusted Tester or taking courses from qualified vendors on testing methodologies for conformance testing.
At the very least, QAs and testers need to study for each criterion the:
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