Important: All interactivity on a site must have the ability to pause, stop, or hide.
The intent of this Success Criterion is to avoid distracting users during their interaction with a Web page. Moving content can also be a severe distraction for some people. Certain groups, particularly those with attention deficit disorders, find blinking content distracting, making it difficult for them to concentrate on other parts of the Web page. Five seconds was chosen because it is long enough to get a user's attention, but not so long that a user cannot wait out the distraction if necessary to use the page.
This includes slideshows and animated backgrounds.
Slideshow requirements
- Users must be able to pause carousel movement because it can be too fast or distracting, making text hard to read.
- All functionality, including navigating between carousel items, must be operable by the keyboard alone.
- Changes to carousel items must be communicated to all users, including screen reader users.
- It must contain next and back buttons.
- It must contain indicators on how many slides exist.
What this means for designers is to ensure the design incorporates next, back, pause, and slide indicators.
Developers have additional responsibilities like ensuring it is compatible with keyboard navigation and screen reader functionality.
Animated backgrounds
Background videos and cinemagraphs that are longer than 5 seconds or loop are required to have a pause or stop button.