Text spacing adjusts without losing content or function
What this criterion checks
This criterion maps to 1.4.12 Text Spacing. A detailed plain-language description is maintained in the WebLens criteria catalogue; the WCAG sub-test breakdown below describes exactly what the agent checks and what it does not.
How it's assessed
WebLens walks each user journey, captures a screenshot at every step, and an agent reasons over that evidence. See the how WebLens works for the full pipeline and the deterministic checks layered in for accessibility.
Sub-test coverage
1.4.12 Text Spacing is broken into 3 sub-tests. Coverage is honest about where the agent is reliable, where it only partially checks the requirement, and where a human reviewer is still needed.
2 full1 partial
- No content is clipped or hidden when text spacing is increased to the required minimumsFull
Our tool applies all four required spacing increases simultaneously (line height, letter spacing, word spacing, and paragraph spacing) and checks whether any text becomes clipped or hidden — for example, text cut off by containers that cannot expand. It uses both direct measurement (detecting increased overflow in elements) and visual inspection. Elements that were already clipped before the spacing change are correctly excluded.
- No text overlaps other content when spacing is increasedFull
After applying spacing overrides, our tool checks whether text elements overlap each other by comparing positions before and after. New overlaps caused by the spacing increase are flagged. Visual inspection also looks for text running into adjacent elements or controls.
- All functionality remains usable with increased text spacingPartial
Our visual inspection checks for content loss and broken elements after spacing is applied. However, thoroughly testing that every button, menu, form control, and link still works correctly with increased spacing requires manual interaction. A person should navigate the page with spacing overrides active and attempt to complete key tasks.
How reliable it is
This criterion is still building up testing data, so confirm its findings as you review. See Accuracy & confidence for how the confidence tags are set.