Let sliders work with single taps
A control slider is a track with a thumb you move along it, used for volume, a color hue, a loan amount, a donation. G216 says the value has to be settable without dragging. W3C's test names one condition, which is that the value can be set with a tap or a click, so clicking a position on the track is what the technique measures. Stepper buttons are described as an additional route rather than the tested one, which makes a slider offering only steppers a weaker pass than it looks. This is a sufficient technique for 2.5.1 Pointer Gestures at Level A. W3C adds a note worth acting on. Custom controls built on top of native ones often stay operable with assistive technology gestures, such as swiping vertically to change a value, which is a direct argument for building your slider on a real range input rather than from scratch.
How we find it in an audit
Our reviewers set each slider without dragging. Click the track, use the stepper, type into a paired number field. Then we operate it with a keyboard and with a screen reader, since a slider that responds to taps and ignores arrow keys has fixed half the problem. Price filters and date ranges are where sliders cluster.
How affected users experience it
Dragging needs sustained precise contact, held over distance, which rules it out for people with tremors, limited dexterity, or any single-contact input device. When a price filter can only be dragged, they cannot filter, so they scroll through everything or leave. Clicking the track and typing a number both remove the requirement entirely, and both are cheap.
Passes vs. fails
Passes
Clicking anywhere on the track moves the nearest handle there, and minimum and maximum number fields accept typed values directly.
Fails
A price-range filter whose two handles respond only to dragging, so anyone who cannot drag cannot filter.
Other ways to satisfy this rule
3 guides on this site are filed under 2.5.1 Pointer Gestures. 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 G216: Providing single point activation for a control slider. 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.