Leader's blog - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Our People - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Our Places - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Schools and education - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Our Council - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Licensing - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Environment and animals - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Planning and Building Control - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Parks, countryside and open space - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Roads and pavements - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

All interactive components on a page, such as buttons or fields, should ideally be large enough 
to be easily used by people with motor impairments. 

This ensures people with motor impairments can easily click or tap on the element.

The recommended size is 44 x 44 CSS pixels, with some exceptions:

* **Equivalent available** - the functionality provided by
  the control is available elsewhere, and large enough, on the same page.
* **Inline text** - the control appears inside a sentence or block of text. 
* **User Agent control** - the size of the target is determined by the user agent 
  and is not modified by the author. Generally this is not the case for web content.
* **Essential** - the size of the target is essential to the information being conveyed,
  e.g. a tutorial demonstrating what a small button looks like. This exception is rare.

## Applying this check

Nearly all websites will fail this check by default. The minimum size requirement
is larger than most links and controls on most websites.

This is the much stricter version of the WCAG 2.2 AA check for target size. Most websites
should focus on the AA check before considering this AAA check:

* [Target Size (Minimum)](https://w3c.github.io/wcag/understanding/target-size-minimum.html)

## Methodology

This check is run on both the mobile and desktop versions of every page. Results
for each may differ.

1. All interactive elements are identified, including buttons, links, and form controls. 
2. If an element is preceded or followed directly by a non-empty text node, the control
   is ignored.
3. If an element is not normally visible, it is ignored. This includes elements which 
   are positioned offscreen or cropped (e.g. for 'screen-reader only' text).
4. If an element is a link, and another visible link on the page points to the same URL, with 
   that other link meeting the size requirements, the element is ignored.
5. Otherwise, the element must have a minimum size of 44 x 44 CSS pixels.

## Troubleshooting

Silktide only records the first 100 instances of a failure on a page. Because failures
of this check are common, it is possible that your page has more than 100 failures, but
only the first 100 will be shown.

## Further reading

* [Target Size (Enhanced)](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/target-size-enhanced)

ensure-reasonable-target-size

January 2026

December 2025

Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Title / URL	Issues
Leader's blog - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Councilwww.stockton.gov.uk/Leaders-blog	100
Our People - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Councilwww.stockton.gov.uk/our-people	100
Our Places - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Councilwww.stockton.gov.uk/our-places	100
Schools and education - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Councilwww.stockton.gov.uk/schools-education	94
Our Council - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Councilwww.stockton.gov.uk/our-council	94
Licensing - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Councilwww.stockton.gov.uk/licensing	85
Environment and animals - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Councilwww.stockton.gov.uk/environment-animals	81
Planning and Building Control - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Councilwww.stockton.gov.uk/planning-building-control	74
Parks, countryside and open space - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Councilwww.stockton.gov.uk/parks-countryside	72
Roads and pavements - Stockton-on-Tees Borough Councilwww.stockton.gov.uk/roads-and-pavements	69

Aim for large interactive controls

Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Where this issue has occurred