When a web page is loaded no audio must be played automatically for more than 3 seconds. If such thing happens users who rely on screen readers cannot hear what it is reading and will be lost until the background noise is stopped. No matter if you make the rest of the web page completely accessible, it will be useless until you fix this problem.
Having this accessibility violation is considered as a critical problem.
Testing method
Manual
Validation of audio control
- Load the page in the browser.
- Observe if any background noise is played automatically when the page first loads.
- If a background music or voice is played, observe if it plays for more than 3 seconds.
- Consider it as not an accessibility violation if it stops within 3 seconds, if not
- Check if any simple mechanism is available to stop or decrease the volume of the background noise. (Remember that the provided mechanism must not stop or decrease the overall system volume)
- If such mechanism is not available then it is an accessibility violation.