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( Perceivable / WCAG 1.4.12 )

Text spacing overrides break the layout

This check maps to Text Spacing. Use the guidance below to confirm the issue, understand who it affects and ship a fix.

Serious Level AA WCAG 1.4.12 — Text Spacing

What’s wrong

Inline styles or !important declarations lock line-height, letter-spacing, word-spacing, or margin-top on text in a way that cannot be overridden by user stylesheets.

Why it matters

Some people with dyslexia, low vision, or cognitive disabilities apply custom text spacing via browser extensions. If your CSS blocks overrides, their changes are ignored and content may become unreadable or overflow containers.

How to fix it

Remove !important from text spacing properties and avoid inline style attributes for spacing.

Before
<p style="line-height: 1; letter-spacing: 0;">Content</p>
p {
  line-height: 1 !important;
  letter-spacing: 0 !important;
}
After
<p>Content</p>
p {
  line-height: 1.5;
  letter-spacing: 0.05em;
}

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