Choose a reading baseline you can maintain
Our starting recommendation for a service website is a familiar, clear typeface, comfortable body text and generous paragraph spacing. Try body text around 18 CSS pixels during design, then evaluate the actual font on different screens. This is our design starting point, not a universal accessibility rule. Some fonts need different sizing because their letter shapes and proportions vary.
Keep line lengths manageable. A paragraph stretching across a large monitor becomes harder to track, while a very narrow column creates constant line breaks. Compare a real service description rather than a short placeholder sentence. Reserve highly decorative lettering for limited accents, and check that numbers in prices, dates and phone details remain easy to distinguish.
Measure contrast instead of judging by eye
W3C’s minimum-contrast criterion specifies at least 4.5:1 for ordinary text and 3:1 for qualifying large text, with stated exceptions. Ask your designer to check the actual foreground and background colours. Larger text has a specific definition; simply calling something a headline does not make it eligible for the lower ratio.
Test secondary copy as well as the main body. Pale grey opening hours, muted form instructions and white text over a bright photograph can become the weakest parts of the page. Our recommendation is to use a solid text background when image crops or lighting make contrast unpredictable. Treat button hover, focus and disabled states as separate design states to inspect.
Let people enlarge the content
W3C’s resize-text criterion addresses enlargement up to 200 percent without loss of content or functionality, apart from specified exceptions. Try browser zoom and look for cut-off labels, overlapping price cards and buttons whose text disappears. Fix the container behaviour rather than reducing the font to force the words back into a rigid box.
The reflow criterion addresses reading narrow layouts without unnecessary scrolling in two directions, with exceptions for content that needs a two-dimensional layout. Our practical check is to review the main service and contact pages at a narrow viewport and enlarged zoom. A sticky header or chat panel should not consume the only space left to read.
Review the page as a customer making a decision
Illustrative problem: a pricing card has a large “From $150” headline, but its qualifying scope is tiny grey text. Improving only the headline misses the decision-critical content. Bring the qualification into the same readable system and make its relationship to the price clear. This example is a design scenario, not a price recommendation.
Read a full page on a phone in ordinary lighting. Then inspect form errors, footnotes, service exclusions and the final enquiry button. Ask someone else to find the price conditions and contact hours without zooming first. These checks can expose obvious barriers; they do not establish that the whole website meets every accessibility requirement.
Your practical checklist
- Evaluate the actual font with real paragraphs.
- Measure contrast for body text and secondary copy.
- Check text over images in every crop.
- Enlarge text and inspect clipping or overlap.
- Review narrow layouts and fixed overlays.
- Give price conditions and form help readable treatment.
Written with AI-assisted research and drafting, with source checks and editorial review for this guidebook. Platform facts link to official documentation. Examples and recommendations are our own; no client results are implied. Sources reviewed October 8, 2026. About Getting Found Local