a11y/no-autoplay-audio

Why

Sound that starts on its own talks over a screen reader, so a blind user cannot hear the page well enough to find the control that stops it. Browsers also block most unmuted autoplay, so the feature is unreliable anyway.

Fix

Start media only when the person presses play. A decorative autoplaying video gets muted (and playsinline on iOS). If audio must start by itself, stop it within 3 seconds or put a pause or mute control first on the page.

Examples

<!-- bad -->
<video autoplay src="promo.mp4"></video>
<!-- good -->
<video autoplay muted loop playsinline src="promo.mp4"></video>
<video controls src="promo.mp4"></video>

Sources

• WCAG 2.2, Understanding SC 1.4.2 Audio Control
• MDN, autoplay guide for media and Web Audio APIs

Read it in the terminal

npx github:dawidolko/frontend-skills explain a11y/no-autoplay-audio