Offer a control to rotate orientation-locked content
G214 gives the reader a control presenting the content in the other orientation, where the display itself is locked. It is the only sufficient technique W3C documents for 1.3.4 Orientation at Level AA. W3C would rather you did not lock at all, and says so. Its own worked example is more interesting than that. An e-reader locks to portrait on purpose, so somebody reading while lying on their side keeps the view they want, and then adds this control for people whose device is mounted. A lock can serve accessibility. The control is what keeps it from excluding anyone. W3C also names the matching failure on this technique's own page, which is unusual. Locking to landscape or portrait with no way out is documented as a way to break the rule.
How we find it in an audit
Our reviewers hold a device in each orientation and see what the page does. A message telling you to rotate is the finding. A mounted tablet cannot be rotated. Where a lock is deliberate, we look for the control that presents the other view, and check it is reachable and operable rather than merely present.
How affected users experience it
A tablet on a wheelchair mount sits in one orientation, permanently. So does a phone in a stand, and so does a device held by somebody who cannot turn their wrist. For all of them a 'rotate your device to continue' message is a dead end with no workaround. A rotate-the-view control costs one button and turns the dead end into a lesson they can take.
Passes vs. fails
Passes
The lesson works in both orientations, and a 'Rotate view' button flips the player layout for anyone who cannot turn the screen itself.
Fails
A video-lesson page that shows only 'Rotate your device to landscape to continue' when held in portrait, which is a dead end for a mounted tablet.
How this gets tested
The W3C publishes test rules that define what a checker looks for here.
- Orientation of the page is not restricted using CSS transformsA tool can check this
Other ways to satisfy this rule
3 guides on this site are filed under 1.3.4 Orientation. 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.
This guide is our interpretation of W3C technique G214: Using a control to allow access to content in different orientations which is otherwise restricted. 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.