About
| Version: | WCAG 2.0 and up |
|---|---|
| Number: | 1.4.2 |
| Level: | A |
| Applicability: |
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| Requirement: |
If any audio on a Web page plays automatically for more than 3 seconds, either a mechanism is available to pause or stop the audio, or a mechanism is available to control audio volume independently from the overall system volume level. |
| Guidance: | |
| Techniques: |
Purpose
The purpose of this success criterion is to ensure that any audio that automatically plays does not interfere with the ability of a user to hear the audio produced by their assistive technology (e.g., drown out the text voicing from a screen reader).
How to Meet
To meet this success criterion, users must either be able to stop the playback of any audio that starts automatically and plays for more than three seconds, or be able to control the volume separately from their assistive technology (since the device sound control raises and lowers all audio in synchronicity, it does not meet this requirement).
Additional Information
The following knowledge base pages provide more information about how to address this success criterion for publishing content: