Pause, Stop, Hide
Moving, blinking, scrolling, or auto-updating content that lasts more than 5 seconds and is presented in parallel with other content must be pausable, stoppable, or hideable by the user.
What it requires
WCAG 2.0 SC 2.2.2 covers carousels that auto-advance, hero animations that loop indefinitely, "as seen on" logo strips that scroll forever, and live ticker feeds. The user must have a documented control to pause, stop, or hide the motion.
The criterion does not ban motion — it requires user control. A 5-second hero animation that plays once is fine. A hero carousel that auto-advances every 7 seconds for the duration of the visit is not, unless a pause button is provided.
Common Shopify failure
Hero slideshow that auto-advances every 5 seconds with no pause control. Brand-logo "as seen on" infinite scroll strip with no pause. Animated promotional banners with no dismiss.
How to fix it
AccessComply adds a pause button (with aria-label="Pause slideshow") to auto-advancing carousels and respects prefers-reduced-motion to stop the motion entirely for users who request reduced motion.
Merchant QA checklist
- Scan the storefront page where this pattern appears: product pages, collection pages, cart drawer, customer-account pages, and any landing page built with theme sections.
- Confirm the issue is fixed in the rendered browser output, not only in the Liquid file. Shopify section settings, app blocks, and third-party scripts can reintroduce the same 2.2.2 failure after a theme edit.
- Re-test the affected component with keyboard navigation and a screen-reader accessibility tree before publishing the theme, especially when the fix changes markup or ARIA attributes.
How AccessComply handles it
AccessComply treats WCAG 2.2.2 as a rendered-storefront issue first. The scanner checks the live DOM and computed styles, maps the finding back to the Shopify theme file that produced it, then classifies the fix as a safe automatic fix. When automation is safe, the app writes the smallest theme-code change needed and keeps the original theme backup available. When merchant judgment is required, the issue is surfaced for manual review instead of pretending the page is fixed.
Primary source: W3C — WCAG 2.0 Understanding 2.2.2