Perceivable / 1.4 Distinguishable
1.4.2Audio Control
Level AIf audio starts playing automatically and lasts more than 3 seconds, provide either a way to pause or stop it, or a way to adjust its volume independently of the system volume. Auto-playing audio can drown out screen reader speech, so letting users silence it quickly matters.
Note
A detailed commentary for this success criterion is not yet available. In the meantime, this page lists related patterns, techniques, and links to the normative sources.
Related Techniques
Specific implementation techniques for meeting this success criterion. This site doesn't include the full text, so follow the links to the original W3C documents.
Sufficient Techniques(3)
- G60: Playing a sound that turns off automatically within three seconds(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- G170: Providing a control near the beginning of the web page that turns off sounds that play automatically(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- G171: Playing sounds only on user request(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
Failures(2)
- F23: Failure of 1.4.2 due to playing a sound longer than 3 seconds where there is no mechanism to turn it off(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
- F93: Failure of Success Criterion 1.4.2 for absence of a way to pause or stop an HTML5 media element that autoplays(opens in a new tab)waic.jp(opens in a new tab)
Normative References
- Success Criterion 1.4.2 Audio Control — WCAG 2.2(opens in a new tab)The normative requirement text.
- Understanding Audio Control — W3C(opens in a new tab)Official guidance on intent, examples, and techniques.