Enough Time
Last modified on Fri 17 Mar 2023

Guideline 2.2 - Enough Time

Provide users enough time to read and use the content.

Success Criterion 2.2.1 - Timing Adjustable

If you're setting time limits on certain actions, you need to ensure that the time limits give adequate time for users with disabilities to interact with the content whenever possible.

A time limit is any process that happens without user initiation after a set time or periodically.

This includes, but isn't limited to:

Therefore, this success criterion requires that for each time limit, that is set by the content, at least one of the following is true:

There are three exceptions to this Success Criterion:

Essential time limits are defined as follows:

If removed, it would fundamentally change the information or functionality of the content, and they cannot be achieved in another way that would conform.

Examples

Techniques

Follow these techniques to comply with the success criterion:

If there are session time limits, you can:

The checkbox can allow the user to request a specific amount of additional time (for example, 15 minutes) or an indefinite extension.

An example of using this technique would be news sites providing a pause option for auto-updating live feeds or a "Remember me" checkbox on login pages.

If a time limit is controlled by a script on the page, you can:

An example of the last technique is the banking app we've covered in previous examples.

If there are time limits on reading, you can:

Failures

Common mistakes that are considered[h][i] failures by WCAG include:

<!-- meta redirect: a bad idea to use this at all! -->
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="5; url=https://example.com/redirected" />
<!-- meta refresh -->
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="60" />

This often relies upon setting the non-standard HTTP header Refresh using server-side languages. As setting non-standard HTTP headers is problematic at best, we strongly suggest against this.

<?php
header('Refresh: 60; url=https://google.com');
?>

Tips and notes

A lot of the auto-scrolling functionality referred to here is similar in behavior to the marquee element, which we advise against using in most cases. There are exceptions to this, of course - it would make sense for a stock ticker component to auto-scroll. Follow good judgment when deciding on auto-scrolling content, and follow the techniques mentioned to ensure auto-scrolling content is accessible to users with disabilities.

Note:

This success criterion helps ensure that users can complete tasks without unexpected changes in content or context resulting from a time limit. This success criterion should be considered in conjunction with success criterion 3.2.1, which limits changes in content or context due to user action.

Find out techniques and failures for this success criterion

Success criterion 2.2.2 - Pause, Stop, Hide

For any moving, blinking, or scrolling information that:

there is a mechanism for the user to pause, stop, or hide it unless the movement, blinking, or scrolling is part of an activity where it is essential.

For any auto-updating information that:

there is a mechanism for the user to pause, stop, or hide it unless the movement, blinking, or scrolling is part of an activity where it is essential.

"Moving, blinking, and scrolling" refers to content in which the visible content conveys a sense of motion. Examples include motion pictures, synchronized media presentations, animations, real-time games, and scrolling stock tickers. "Auto-updating" refers to content that updates or disappears based on a preset time interval. Common time-based content includes audio, automatically updated weather information, news, stock price updates, and auto-advancing presentations and messages.

The same definition of "essential" as in the previous success criterion applies here. Note that while there may be an overlap between these terms, there is an important difference between blinking, which refers to content that causes a distraction problem and can be allowed for a short time as long as it stops or can be stopped; and flashing, which refers to content that can trigger a seizure (occurring more than three times per second and large or bright enough), where no exceptions apply.

Techniques and examples

WCAG recommends the following techniques:

In general, we recommend using good taste in animations to prevent distractions. We also recommend supporting prefers-reduced-motion, which we'll discuss in later success criteria.

Examples of this success criterion in practice include:

Failures and notes

Avoid some common failures:

Notes:

Content that is updated periodically by software or streamed to the user agent is not required to preserve or present information that is generated or received between the initiation of the pause and resuming presentation, as this may not be technically possible, and in many situations could be misleading to do so.

An animation that occurs as part of a preload phase or similar situation can be considered essential if interaction cannot occur during that phase for all users and, if not indicating progress, could confuse users or cause them to think that content was frozen or broken.

Find out more techniques and failures for this success criterion