Any moving, blinking, scrolling, or auto-updating content that starts automatically and lasts more than five seconds must provide the ability for a user to pause, stop, or hide it.
Auto-updating means content updates or disappears on a preset schedule.
Exceptions:
- Unless the content is essential
Examples:
- Stock ticker
- Sports scores
- Blinking advertisement
- Scrolling news updates
- Gifs
What to do:
- Limit or eliminate any content that moves or updates automatically
Plain English Explanation:
For any content that begins to move on its own, provide the ability to pause, stop, or hide it after five seconds.
Moving content can be extremely distracting so this success criterion severely limits it. WCAG allows for five seconds for automatic moving content to catch someone’s attention.
Again, you should be picking up on a theme: the user remains in control of the website’s content. Keep this in mind when you retrofit or build your website for accessibility.
When in doubt, err towards making automatic content static with the ability to turn on refreshes or automatic updates.
