Website Accessibility Tip of the Week: Limit Audio
Audio Best Practices
- Provide a control near the beginning of the Web page that turns off sounds that play automatically. Users with screen reading devices will find it difficult to hear the screen reader if there is sound playing over top of it.
- Users must be able to turn off the sound within 3 seconds of playing it
- The audio control must allow the user to control the volume, including decreasing it to 0
See the additional resources below to learn more details about the WCAG 2.0 Guideline 1.4 and Success Criterion 1.4.2.:
The audio control accessibility guideline is based on the first Web Content Accessible Guide (WCAG) 2.0 principle, Level A: Principle 1 – Perceivable and states: Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.
The WCAG 2.0 Guideline 1.4 - Distinguishable was created based on that principle stating: Make it easier for users to see and hear content including separating foreground from background.
The WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 1.4.2 - Audio Control states: 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.
Discover more website accessibility resources on the Trent University Marketing & Recruitment website
Posted on February 6, 2017
