Footnote links and their backlinks are too small #3440
Labels
accessibility
Accessibility issues identified
acknowledged
This issue has been triaged.
design
Design inconsistencies and quirks
WCAG 2.2
Footnotes within the Govspeak component currently don't fail 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum). But that is only because there is an exception for interactive elements within inline text.
Note: 2.5.8 is part of the new draft WCAG 2.2 criteria. The latest standard is WCAG 2.1. WCAG 2.2 isn't published yet, so this is potentially subject to change.
But the small size of footnotes is still an accessibility issue, they are very difficult to click on with a mouse or finger on a touch device, especially for people with motor impairments. That’s worse when footnotes or backlinks are close to another link or footnote (which can also look different in other viewports).
When testing the smallest footnote link was only 5.62 x 18.5px and the backlink was 19 x 23.5px.
There is a worse example of footnotes under Specialist content.
Screenshots of footnotes and backlinks with their dimensions:
This was fixed in some areas on www.gov.uk already (e.g. partly in this Govspeak PR) by changing:
That also shows that there is an issue of footnotes currently being inconsistent across www.gov.uk.
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