In accessiblity settings in Firefox Android, there is a setting called “Zoom on all websites” that supposedly enables “pinch and zoom, even on websites that prevent this gesture.”

On paper, this sounds good; however, in practice there exist a number of web sites (e.g., https://abcnews.go.com/) that still manage to sabotage pinch and zoom, making them impossible for certain people, myself included, to read the content on the site.

First of all, why would they want to do this? It seems like an empty spiteful gesture that profits them in no way and, if anything, prevents people from using their site.

Second, and more importantly, how do they manage to sabotage the effectiveness of this setting, and is there a way around it? A setting in about:config, perhaps?

I did report it on webcompat, but it was closed as not a webcompat issue, since the site also prevents pinch and zoom on other browsers.

Also, this seems like an ADA violation, since they are deliberately restricting accessibility options, but I’m not educated enough in ADA to really know if this is true or not.

It just seems like a really dogshit thing to do.

Edit: I noticed pinch to zoom works in reader mode, once I click into an article.

  • fiat_lux@kbin.social
    2·
    1 year ago

    Huh, thankyou for introducing me to Eruda, this is a nice looking tool. I wouldn’t install it as a plugin just for this, but luckily you don’t need to. Do not use this tool on any page where you’re entering information or viewing private info though, these are dangerous powertools and allowing plugins to do arbitrary JS evaluation is like not using a safety guard.

    This should work though:

    1. Make a new bookmark on mobile Firefox
    2. Paste as the location: javascript:(function () { var script = document.createElement('script'); script.src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/eruda"; document.body.append(script); script.onload = function () { eruda.init(); } })();

    This loads Eruda scoped to that tab only from their CDN, which hopefully limits possible damage it can do.

    Here is what you need Eruda to do: const naughtyMetaTag = document.head.querySelectorAll('meta[name="viewport"]'); !!naughtyMetaTag ?? naughtyMetaTag[0].setAttribute('content', '');

    It will fail silently if it doesn’t find the tag with the name viewport, otherwise it will empty the contents of it and you’ll be able to zoom.

    The much safer alternative is to use Android’s built in accessibility zoom functionality for this specific task though, to be honest.

    Edit: on second thought, we can avoid Eruda altogether for this task. I haven’t tested this at all but try bookmarking this instead javascript:(function () { const naughtyMetaTag = document.head.querySelectorAll('meta[name="viewport"]'); !!naughtyMetaTag ?? naughtyMetaTag[0].setAttribute('content', ''); })(); and visiting it when on a bad page. Much safer and worth trying first.