• Success Criterion 1.4.2
  • Conformance level A

Autoplay That Resumes Automatically After Being Paused

1.4.2 — Audio Control

Scenario

Setting

A job board's application form

What’s wrong

Autoplay resumes after user pauses (state not persisted on next page/interaction).

Example 

audio.addEventListener("pause", () => {
  sessionStorage.removeItem("audioPaused");
});
// on the next application step, audio.play() runs unconditionally on load
<!-- pausing the audio never sticks between steps of the application -->

Why it matters

An applicant pauses ambient background audio on step one, only to have it restart automatically on step two, breaking their concentration.

How to test

Pause the audio, then navigate away and back (or interact again): if it resumes playing automatically without the pause choice being remembered, it fails.

How to fix

Persist the user's mute choice in storage that survives navigation between form steps.

if (!localStorage.getItem("audioMuted")) {
  audio.play();
}
audio.addEventListener("pause", () => localStorage.setItem("audioMuted", "true"));

Outcome

The applicant pauses the audio once and it stays off for the rest of the multi-step form.

Who is affected

Users with attention or sensory-processing conditions who need audio to stay off once they've turned it off.

Learn more

Related scenarios