ACT Rule efbfc7 · proposed
Text content that changes automatically can be paused, stopped or hidden
Text that changes on its own, a ticker, a rotating headline, a live count, has to be stoppable, because a screen reader restarts every time it moves. This rule checks that content updating itself has a way to pause it, stop it, hide it, or slow it down.
No tool decides this one. A person has to look. The rule is proposed, so it has not yet been implemented in full by a tool and reviewed by a W3C working group, and the wording can still change.
What passing this rule proves
When this rule fails, 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide is not satisfied, and that half is certain. When it passes, W3C's own outcome mapping says the criterion still needs further testing. So a green result here is evidence that one specific thing is not broken, and it is the answer W3C gives on 59 of its 87 live rules.
It is the only published rule W3C records as manual and nothing else, out of all 87. The rule also draws its own line at content changing within ten minutes, and W3C says that ten minutes is arbitrary and appears nowhere in WCAG. Something updating once an hour can fail the criterion and pass this rule.
The criteria this rule is a test for
These are the criteria the rule names as its own conformance requirement. Each one is a far bigger question than this rule asks, and our page for it sets out what the whole criterion covers.
- 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide Level A
The normative rule text lives at W3C
What the rule applies to, and exactly what it expects, is published by W3C and can change. We link to it rather than restate it, so nothing here can quietly fall out of date against the source. Read rule efbfc7 at W3C.
Content that moves automatically must be pausable
Carousels, tickers and auto-advancing content take attention whether or not you can spare it. For people with attention or reading difficulties, movement beside the text makes the text unreadable.
If it starts by itself, runs more than five seconds, and sits alongside other content, there has to be a way to pause, stop or hide it.
Hero carousels that advance every few seconds offer only dots. The dots change slides but never stop the rotation. Users cannot pause it and cannot read the text.
Fixes that satisfy it
If this rule fails on your site, these are the techniques that put it right.
All 87 ACT rules are grouped by the criteria they test, and 24 of them decide nothing about WCAG on their own. Run a free scan to see which of these your own pages trip.