Viewport Meta Tag That Disables Pinch-to-Zoom on Mobile

1.4.4 — Resize Text

Scenario

A recipe site's ingredient list

maximum-scale=1 / user-scalable=no in viewport meta tag (page zoom settings) blocking pinch-zoom on mobile (no other resize path).

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

A home cook with low vision propped their phone on the counter and can't pinch-zoom to read a small ingredient measurement.

Check the viewport meta tag in page source: maximum-scale=1 or user-scalable=no blocks pinch-zoom on mobile with no other resize path — this fails.

Drop maximum-scale and user-scalable=no entirely; there's no accessibility justification for blocking pinch-zoom.

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

The cook pinches to zoom in on the ingredient list and reads the exact measurement without guessing.

Low-vision mobile users, who lose their only path to larger text once pinch-zoom is disabled on a phone.