The Ideal Bestest Base Font Size That Everyone Is Keeping a Secret
What they're not telling you: Who Controls What You Can Read? The Web Accessibility Cartel Nobody's Prosecuting Web developers across the United States are being locked into a compliance regime that benefits a specific class of software vendors, accessibility consultants, and the regulatory infrastructure that validates their control—all while deliberately ignoring user choice. The secret isn't hidden in code.
What the Documents Show
It's hidden in who profits from making developers believe they must override user preferences. The mechanism is straightforward. A consensus has formed among web standards bodies, corporate accessibility officers, and enterprise design systems that base font sizes must be set explicitly—overriding the browser defaults and user accessibility settings that millions of Americans depend on. This isn't a technical requirement. It's an enforcement mechanism.
Follow the Money
When a developer sets `font-size: 16px` on the body element, they're making a choice to ignore whatever font size a user with vision impairment, age-related presbyopia, or disability has configured in their operating system or browser. That choice cascades through every dependent calculation on the page. The beneficiaries are identifiable. Accessibility consulting firms bill enterprise clients for "compliance audits" that flag missing base font sizes as violations. Automated testing tools—Axe DevTools, WAVE, Lighthouse—incorporate base font size checks into their scoring algorithms, creating customer demand for fixes. Large design systems (Shopify's Polaris, Salesforce's Lightning, Google's Material Design) mandate explicit font sizing as canonical practice.
What Else We Know
Each of these organizations profits from a normalized standard that treats developer override as mandatory. Meanwhile, the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines maintain the pretense of neutrality while the practical ecosystem punishes non-compliance. No developer faces legal liability for respecting user choice—but many face pressure from QA departments, automated linters, and accessibility consultants who've built entire business models on the opposite principle. The SEC doesn't investigate this. The FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection has never issued a statement about user accessibility overrides being systematically engineered out of commercial websites. What the mainstream coverage misses: this isn't about making sites more accessible.
Primary Sources
- Source: Hacker News
- Category: Corporate Watchdog
- Cross-reference independently — don't take our word for it.
Disclosure: NewsAnarchist aggregates from public records, API feeds (Federal Register, CourtListener, MuckRock, Hacker News), and independent media. AI-assisted synthesis. Always verify primary sources linked above.