Zoom, reflow & spacing

The Page Stops People from Zooming In

The page's settings block pinch-zoom on phones, so people who need bigger text can't make it bigger and may not be able to read it.

meta-viewportWCAG 2.0Introduced in WCAG 2.0.Level AAAA — the Australian baseline (WCAG 2.2 AA) most laws and policies ask for.

Status: CriticalCritical — Someone can complete the task only with great difficulty or outside help.CurrentScanners run this rule today.
Owner: DevTestProduct
Audit: AutomatedA scanner finds it, and a clean scan means it's fixed.

Why it matters

Many people zoom in to read small text, check a price or see a photo. On phones they do this by pinching the screen.

A setting in the page's <meta name="viewport"> tag can turn that off. Then people with low vision are stuck with text they can't read.

Who it affects, and how much
Who	What they experience	Impact
Low-vision users (magnification)	They pinch to zoom and nothing happens, so small text stays unreadable.	High impact
Cognitive and neurodivergent users	Some people enlarge text to focus on it, and they can't.	Partial impact
Motor and dexterity	They can't enlarge small buttons and links to tap them more accurately.	Partial impact

Business & product impact, with how much each claim weighs
Area	Why	Impact
Legal	It fails WCAG 2.2 Level AA, the standard used under Australia's Disability Discrimination Act and EN 301 549.	High impact
Conversion	Shoppers who can't read the fine print or price on mobile often leave.	Moderate impact
SEO	Little direct search benefit. Don't sell it as one.	Low impact
Brand trust	Blocking zoom feels hostile to older customers, a large and growing group.	Moderate impact
Cost to fix	A one-line fix in the shared page template.	High impact

Don't

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, user-scalable=no">

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

Removing user-scalable=no lets people pinch to zoom again.

Don't

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1">

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

A maximum-scale below 2 stops people zooming far enough, so leave it out.

Design layouts that still work when text is twice the size. Don't rely on blocking zoom to keep a layout tidy.

Tool

Your phone's browser

Checklist

A scanner checks the viewport tag. It can't tell whether the layout still works or text overlaps once someone zooms in.