Update content only when the user asks
Take the automatic refresh out and put a button where it was. G76 is the strongest version of handing update timing to the reader, and W3C files it as sufficient for two Level AAA rules, one about interruptions and one about changes happening only on request. Both sit above the AA line accessibility law generally points at, so this is a quality decision rather than an obligation. It is also the cheapest of these options in engineering terms, because a button that fetches new data is less work than a preference system with a frequency setting and a default to argue about. The test comes down to one condition. If a mechanism to request an update exists, that same content must not also go on updating itself.
How we find it in an audit
We look for the two things together, which is where this usually goes wrong. Plenty of pages ship a refresh button and leave the timer running behind it, so the reader gets both. A reviewer watches a page for a few minutes without touching anything and notes whether it moves. Then they press the update control and check that new content arrives, that focus is handled, and that the reader is told how much changed rather than left to work it out.
How affected users experience it
When a page re-renders itself, a screen reader's reading position goes back to the top and nothing explains it. On a liveblog rebuilding every thirty seconds, a reader never gets past the first item. An update button changes the shape of the whole experience, because the reader picks the moment, knows the change is coming, and can find their way back to what they were reading. The content is identical. The control is the entire difference.
Passes vs. fails
Passes
The liveblog shows 3 new posts and a Show them button, and nothing re-renders until that button gets pressed.
Fails
A news liveblog re-renders on its own schedule, so assistive technology users lose their place with every rebuild.
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
5 guides on this site are filed under 2.2.4 Interruptions. 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 G76: Providing a mechanism to request an update of the content instead of updating automatically. 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.