Ensuring that users can pause animated GIFs, jingles, and other visual or audio animations improves comfort and focus for all users.

Objectives

• Ensure manual control over animations.
• Allow step-by-step consumption of sequential animations or audio content.
• Make controls accessible to people with disabilities.

Implementation

• Avoid using animated graphics that cannot be fully controlled by the user (particularly animated GIFs).
• Provide playback controls (e.g., play, pause, and volume) for visual animations longer than 5 seconds or audio clips longer than 3 seconds.
• Include the following metadata in the OPF file: <meta property="schema:accessibilityHazard">noFlashingHazard</meta>, <meta property="schema:accessibilityHazard">noMotionSimulationHazard</meta>, and <meta property="schema:accessibilityHazard">noSoundHazard</meta>.

Control

• On every page containing visual animations or audio, verify that the content can be paused, restarted, or silenced (check for pause, restart, and volume controls where applicable).