Letter spacing set with !important in style attributes must be at least 0.12em.

When letter-spacing is set in a style attribute with !important and the value is less than 0.12em, users cannot override it to a comfortable spacing. This blocks people who need wider letter spacing to read text — including users with dyslexia, low vision, or certain cognitive disabilities.

Many users rely on browser extensions, custom stylesheets, or assistive technologies to increase spacing between letters. These tools typically inject author-origin CSS to override existing styles. But a style attribute with !important sits at the top of the CSS cascade for author-origin styles. No selector, no matter how specific, can beat it. The user's preferred spacing is silently ignored.

Why this matters

WCAG Success Criterion 1.4.12 (Text Spacing), a Level AA requirement, says users must be able to adjust text spacing properties without losing content or functionality. Specifically, letter spacing must be adjustable to at least 0.12 times the font size. When an inline style attribute locks letter-spacing below that threshold with !important, the page actively prevents this adjustment.

Some assistive technologies can set user-origin or user-agent-origin styles, which can override author-origin !important declarations in the cascade. But many common tools (browser extensions, bookmarklets) can only set author-origin styles. For those users, an !important declaration in a style attribute is unbeatable.

How to fix it

There are two straightforward options:

1. Remove !important from the letter-spacing declaration in the style attribute. Without !important, user-injected styles with higher specificity or later origin can override it.
2. If !important must stay, increase the letter-spacing value to at least 0.12em (0.12 times the font size). At that point, the spacing already meets the minimum threshold users would set.

Moving the style to an external or internal stylesheet is also a fix, since stylesheet-based declarations can be overridden by other author-origin styles with equal or higher specificity.

Examples

Incorrect: letter spacing below 0.12em with !important

<p style="letter-spacing: 0.05em !important;">
  This text has locked letter spacing that users cannot override.
</p>

The letter-spacing value of 0.05em is below the 0.12em threshold, and !important in a style attribute prevents user overrides.

Correct: letter spacing meets the minimum threshold

<p style="letter-spacing: 0.12em !important;">
  This text meets the minimum letter spacing requirement.
</p>

The value is at least 0.12em, so even though !important is present, the spacing already satisfies what users would need to set.

Correct: remove !important

<p style="letter-spacing: 0.05em;">
  Users can now override this letter spacing with their own styles.
</p>

Without !important, assistive technologies and browser extensions can inject styles that override this value.

Correct: move the style to a stylesheet

<style>
  .narrow-spacing {
    letter-spacing: 0.05em;
  }
</style>
<p class="narrow-spacing">
  Stylesheet-based styles can be overridden by user-injected stylesheets.
</p>

Styles in a stylesheet, even with !important, can be overridden by other author-origin styles with higher specificity or later source order. This gives assistive technologies a way to adjust the spacing.

Learn more:

W3C Reference

Understanding Success Criterion 1.4.12: Text Spacing

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W3C Reference

CSS Techniques for WCAG 2.1 - C36

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MDN Reference

MDN: letter-spacing

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