SIA-R48<audio> or <video> that plays automatically has no audio that lasts more than 3 seconds

Accessibility requirements

This rule is not required for conformance to any accessibility requirements.

Description

audio or video that plays automatically does not output audio for more than 3 seconds.

Applicability

This rule applies to every <audio> or <video> element that has:

• an autoplay attribute with a value of true, and
• a muted attribute with a value of false, and
• a paused attribute with a value of false, and
• a media resource with a duration of more than 3 seconds that contains audio.

Expectations

1. For each test target the total audio output does not last more than 3 seconds.

   This rule does not cover single audio instances that play repeatedly for more than three seconds, or multiple audio instances for more than three seconds. The WCAG Understanding documentation for 1.4.2 Audio Controls is ambiguous about how to handle these scenarios.

Assumptions

This rule makes no assumptions.

Accessibility support

This rule has no known accessibility support concerns.

Examples

Acknowledgments

This document includes material copied from or derived from https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/act/rules/aaa1bf/. Copyright © 2025 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio, Beihang).