Fix · Serious · cited in audits
How to fix: auto-playing video with sound
Video plays sound on page load with no immediate pause control. Background audio competes with screen reader announcements.
- WCAG references
- 1.4.2
- Severity
- Serious
What it looks like in the wild
Video plays sound on page load with no immediate pause control.
The screen-reader user, keyboard user, or low-vision user encountering this issue does not get an error message. The page just stops working for them. Which is why this kind of bug rarely shows up in your error tracker; it shows up in support tickets, lawsuits, and abandoned conversions.
Why it fails WCAG
Background audio competes with screen reader announcements.
Map this back to 1.4.2 when you log the bug. Auditors and procurement teams expect that mapping; "broken" is not enough context.
The wrong pattern (avoid)
<video autoplay src="/hero.mp4"></video>The right pattern (copy this)
<video src="/hero.mp4" muted controls playsinline></video>Notes from real audits
Muted autoplay is acceptable; sound autoplay is not.
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WCAG 1.4.2 — Audio Control
If audio plays automatically for more than 3 seconds, a way to pause, stop, or control its
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