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Re: WCAG 2.2.2 and repetition over time.

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From: Mark Magennis
Date: May 1, 2025 3:30AM

I guess it depends on how you interpret the word "lasts" in the sentence "For any moving, blinking or scrolling information that (1) starts automatically, (2) lasts more than five seconds, and (3) is presented in parallel with other content...". If it happens again, does this mean it's "lasting" since it happened before.

Aside from arguments in WCAG court, your question of whether this can be considered bad practice depends on how you judge the importance of this frequent reminder against the fact that it will be sufficiently distracting to make it difficult for some users to concentrate on reading or interacting with other content.

Speaking personally, I find animation, blinking content, reminder pop-ups etc. horribly distracting and I don't have any diagnosed attention deficit or other disorder, so I can only imaging how bad it might be for some other users. So to support this approach I think you would need a very strong argument for how important it is to repeatedly remind users.

Mark


From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > on behalf of Kia via WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Thursday 1 May 2025 09:53
To: <EMAIL REMOVED> < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Cc: Kia < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [WebAIM] WCAG 2.2.2 and repetition over time.

Hi all,

I'm working with an app that uses a blinking dot to indicate a new notification. The blinking is intended to draw attention, and it lasts for 4 seconds, then stops. After a pause of 30 seconds, it blinks again for another 4 seconds — and this cycle repeats.

My questions are:
Would such a pattern (blinking <5s, repeating every 30s) be considered compliant with WCAG 2.2.2? What if the pause was longer?
If it's technically compliant, could it still be considered a bad practice from an accessibility perspective?
Are there any known best practices or real-world examples for handling this kind of intermittent attention-drawing animation?




Kind regards,

Kia



__________

Kia Neumann

Tilgængelighedskonsulent, Sensus ApS.

Specialister i tilgængelighed

Tel +45 48 22 10 03

Mobil +45 61 78 32 30

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