Let users switch time limits off entirely
G198 gives the reader a way to turn a time limit off before it starts running. W3C is explicit about where it goes. Near the top of the page. It adds a second-order condition that makes the whole thing work, because the time limit on the page carrying the mechanism has to be long enough that somebody ten times slower than most users can still reach it. Otherwise the way out expires before they reach it. This is a sufficient technique for 2.2.1 Timing Adjustable at Level A. That ten-times figure is W3C's working estimate of how much longer a task can take, and it runs through the timing techniques as a group.
How we find it in an audit
Our reviewers look for the option before starting the timed task, and count how far into the page it sits. Then we switch it off and prove it. That means waiting out the original limit with the form half-filled. Support telling users to type faster is not a mechanism, and it is a sentence we have genuinely been given as an answer.
How affected users experience it
An exam registration that expires in fifteen minutes regardless of activity is a test of speed that nobody agreed to sit. Reading through speech is slower. So is typing with a switch, tracking a form under magnification, or working through a question when processing takes time. Turning the clock off costs the site almost nothing and removes an artificial barrier that had no purpose in the first place.
Passes vs. fails
Passes
Before starting, the page offers 'This form normally times out after 15 minutes' with a checkbox reading 'Give me unlimited time', and ticking it disables the timeout.
Fails
An exam-registration portal expires after 15 minutes regardless of activity, the timer is fixed, and support suggests typing faster.
How this gets tested
The W3C publishes test rules that define what a checker looks for here.
- Meta element has no refresh delayA tool can check this
- Meta element has no refresh delay (no exception)A tool can check this
Other ways to satisfy this rule
11 guides on this site are filed under 2.2.1 Timing Adjustable. W3C lists this one as sufficient for that rule on its own. Implement it correctly, in a way your readers' software actually supports, and the rule is met.
- G4sufficientLet users pause moving content and resume it
- G133sufficientOffer longer session limits before forms begin
- G180sufficientLet users extend time limits tenfold
- SCR1sufficientLet users extend a script's time limit
- SCR16sufficientWarn users before a time limit runs out
- SCR33sufficientGive scrolling content a pause and a resume
This guide is our interpretation of W3C technique G198: Providing a way for the user to turn the time limit off. W3C publishes its techniques as guidance rather than as the standard, and says so on every one of them. The success criterion is what conformance is measured against, and a technique is one documented way to meet it.