Understanding WCAG SC 1.4.2 Audio Control
1.4.2 Audio Control: 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. (Level A)
Note: Since any content that does not meet this success criterion can interfere with a user’s ability to use the whole page, all content on the Web page (whether or not it is used to meet other success criteria) must meet this success criterion.
Audio Control Transcript
Hello everyone! Today, we’re going to talk about audio control, including its requirements, importance, failure scenarios, and how we can fix them. It might seem like a good creative or marketing strategy to play audio content for more than three seconds upon page load or otherwise, but did you know that this can interfere with navigation or operability for many users? This is why WCAG mandates a mechanism to pause or stop such auto-playing media content, as well as a volume control that is independent of the system volume control.Now, let’s understand why this matters. This requirement helps users with limited vision or no vision who rely on screen reader applications that read out content and UI controls with software voice. It also assists users who are visually impaired but may become distracted when audio-only content plays automatically in parallel.
So, how can we address this? We can ensure that if audio content plays automatically, it does so for three seconds or less, or provide a control at the beginning of a web page or app screen that can silence the audio, even if the content could play for longer.
Let’s look at a failure scenario: on the product details pages of an e-commerce site, an audio promo plays automatically the moment users navigate to those pages, and there is no mechanism to silence the playback.
To fix this issue, we should avoid playing any media content automatically on page load and instead require user interaction to initiate playback. If media content must play automatically, it’s essential to provide a mechanism to control the volume and to pause or stop the playback.
This is the end of the video. Thank you for joining! If you liked the video, do like and subscribe.
While many may argue that the system could be lowered to prevent distractions, that solution would not solve the problem. It is mainly because the assistive technologies like screen reader volume is based on the system volume and the volume of the automatically playing audio content must be independent of the system volume.
The best example of playing audio automatically is Youtube videos & other video sharing sites.
