F4: Failure of Success Criterion 2.2.2 due to using text-decoration:blink without a mechanism to stop it in less than five seconds | WAI | W3C Skip to content

Technique F4:Failure of Success Criterion 2.2.2 due to using text-decoration:blink without a mechanism to stop it in less than five seconds

About this Technique

This technique relates to 2.2.2: Pause, Stop, Hide (Failure).

This failure applies to Cascading Style Sheets.

Description

CSS defines the blink value for the text-decoration property. When used, it causes any text in elements with this property to blink at a predetermined rate. This cannot be interrupted by the user, nor can it be disabled as a user agent preference. The blinking continues as long as the page is displayed. Therefore, content that uses text-decoration:blink fails the Success Criterion because blinking can continue for more than five seconds.

Examples

Example 1

A product list page uses the text-decoration:blink style on an element to draw attention to sale prices. This fails the Success Criterion because users cannot control the blink.

<p>My Great Product <span style="text-decoration:blink">Sale! $44,995!</span></p>

Related Resources

No endorsement implied.

Tests

Procedure

  1. Examine inline styles, internal stylesheets, and external stylesheets for the text-decoration property with a value of blink.
  2. If the property is used, determine if the ID, class, or element identified by selectors on which this property is defined are used in the document.

Expected Results

  • If checks #1 and #2 are true, the content fails the success criterion.
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