WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Background changing

for

From: Veronika Jermolina
Date: May 23, 2017 3:57AM


Hi all,

My take on SC 2.2.2 Pause stop hide is that if there's movement (lasting
longer than 5 seconds), there must be a mechanism to stop it.
https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/time-limits-pause.html

It may sound quite harsh and most carousels would indeed fail this.

However, from experience of observing people use websites with movement,
this SC is actually based on a real need. People with dyslexia or cognitive
impairments may not be able to read the text when there is movement on the
page. I've seen people scroll any moving elements completely out of view
before they could read it. I would therefore argue that movement on the
page prevents people from perceiving content, which breaks one of four core
WCAG 2.0 principles.

So your concerns are valid I would say.

Thanks,
Vero


On 23 May 2017 at 09:01, Karl Brown < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> 2.2.2 <https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#time-limits-pause> *might *come into
> play, even though the images are decorative. Because they're changing and
> give some form of information* I'd certainly want to be able to pause it.
>
> I say information*, because it's more in keeping with how a brand wants to
> be seen. If the images are totally decorative (could be swapped out with no
> loss of understanding from the user) then it'll be harder to argue from a
> WCAG perspective.
>
> Away from the guidelines, you're right. People with some cognitive issues
> may wonder what's going on and become distressed. And users who zoom in may
> end up having issues reading the text as the text gets bigger and spills
> over more of the image, which could lead into a failure for colour
> contrast.
>
> If the company are using a CMS, there's one other thing they should
> consider for accessibility. A typical CMS user doesn't understand web
> accessibility, nor does the average marketing professional, so colour
> contrast is very likely to fail over time as users switch the images for
> new ones. The only way around that is to code something like a block
> background colour behind the text, which'll defeat the usual purpose of
> text over images.
>
> I'd be interested to hear what everyone else thinks?
>
> On Mon, May 22, 2017 at 9:15 PM, Gosia Wheeler < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> wrote:
>
> > I would like to hear your accessibility feedback on the following
> scenario:
> >
> > I'm testing a desktop website with static text but the background image
> is
> > changing. There are four different decorative images used for the
> > background, shifting from one to the other every 9 seconds. There is
> > sufficient contrast between the foreground text and the background image.
> > Do you think it needs a Play/Pause button, or should the image rotation
> > stop after a certain number of cycles, or maybe it is fine as is?
> >
> > I'm concerned that for people with cognitive disabilities and those with
> > low vision that magnify the screen, the background changing will be too
> > confusing and they will not be able to tell if the images bring any value
> > to the website experience or not.
> > Please share your feedback.
> >
> > > > > > > > > >
>
>
>
> --
> Karl Brown
> Twitter: @kbdevelops
> Skype: kbdevelopment
>
> Professional Certificate Web Accessibility Compliance (Distinction),
> University of South Australia, 2015
> > > > >