Audio Control

Why it matters

For a screen reader user, an autoplaying soundtrack is not background music setting a mood. It is noise over the only interface they have to the page. And the mute button is unreachable by definition, because finding it means hearing the announcements the music is drowning out. The sharpest version of this is somebody who is both blind and hard of hearing, whose screen reader speaks through the system volume. They cannot turn the music down without turning the speech down with it, so no setting on the machine solves it. The standard's own advice goes further than the rule does. Do not start sound on arrival. Let people start it themselves.

Who this rule protects

Screen reader users are hit hardest, because the sound competes with the speech they navigate by. Users who are both blind and hard of hearing have no way out at all when the screen reader shares the system volume. People with attention or auditory processing difficulties lose their place the moment unexpected sound starts.

How to check it yourself

1. 1Load each page with the sound on and listen for anything that starts playing by itself.
2. 2Time it. Sound that stops on its own inside three seconds needs no control at all, which is why a notification chime is fine.
3. 3Where sound keeps playing, find the pause or mute control. It has to sit near the top of the page and among the first things you reach by keyboard.
4. 4Check the control works without touching the system volume, since muting the computer is not the same as stopping the audio.
5. 5Check embedded widgets, ad slots and legacy players specifically. None of them can be carved out of a conformance claim, because this rule reaches all content on the page.
6. 6Leave user-started audio and two-way calls alone. A clearly labeled play button is not autoplay, and neither is a video call where anybody might speak.

Failures we see most often

• A hero video plays with sound the instant the page loads, before the visitor has done anything at all.
• Background music starts automatically on a landing page while the mute control sits buried in the footer.
• An audio or video element carries the autoplay attribute without the muted attribute, and the player offers no pause or stop control.
• The only way to silence a page is the operating system volume, which silences the screen reader along with it.
• A third-party embed autoplays sound and is carved out of the conformance claim, which this rule does not allow.

Who this one is for

Read from this rule's own note above, so the grouping and the note cannot disagree.

• Blind and screen reader userspeople who cannot see the screen
• Deaf and hard of hearingpeople who cannot hear the audio
• Cognitive and learningpeople for whom the difficulty is understanding, remembering, or staying with it

How this one is tested

We list 3 ACT rules against 1.4.2. Each one defines exactly what a checker looks at, which is how automated tools decide what to flag. Each one also checks a slice, so passing every rule here is not the same as meeting the criterion, and a rule can be proposed rather than approved or need a person to finish it. The note beside each says which.

• Audio or video element avoids automatically playing audioA tool can check this
• Audio or video element that plays automatically has a control mechanismA tool can check this
• Audio or video element that plays automatically has no audio that lasts more than 3 secondsA tool can check this

How to fix it

• Do not autoplay sound. That is the standard's own recommendation rather than only our opinion, and it is what most browsers already enforce on your behalf.
• Autoplay muted if you want a moving hero. A video element carrying the muted attribute sits outside this criterion altogether, so the pattern is fine.
• Where sound genuinely has to start on its own, put a pause or mute button among the very first focusable controls on the page. It has to stop the audio rather than the machine.
• Keep interface sounds under three seconds and they need no control at all.

Passes vs. fails