In plain English
An auto-advancing carousel that flips before you finish reading, a marquee that scrolls announcements, a “someone just bought this” ticker, these move on their own. For people with attention differences or those using screen magnifiers, they are a real barrier: content vanishes before it can be read, and motion pulls focus away. This rule says: if it moves (or auto-updates) for more than 5 seconds, give people a way to pause, stop, or hide it.
Who this is for
- People with attention or cognitive differences, who are distracted by motion.
- Screen-magnifier users, who lose content that moves out of view.
- Anyone, who wants to read a carousel slide before it flips.
How to check and fix it yourself
Find anything that moves or updates on its own. Does it run past 5 seconds? If so, add a visible pause control (and ideally do not auto-play at all).
Carousel → add a pause/play button; pause on hover and focus. ✓
Announcement → make it static, or add a stop control. ✓
Live ticker → provide a way to pause or hide it. ✓Where we can help
Auto-motion usually comes from theme carousels and marketing apps. We flag every moving or auto-updating element that lacks a pause control and show the fix. It is a frequent item on the common failures list.