Audio Interference

Audio interference in a digital accessibility context is the overlap of two or more sound streams in a user's environment such that one masks another — most commonly, auto-playing media audio on a webpage drowning out a screen reader's synthesized speech. Because most consumer operating systems provide only a single master volume, blind users cannot lower a noisy video without also silencing their screen reader. This is why WCAG 2.x Success Criterion 1.4.2 (Audio Control) requires that any audio playing automatically for more than three seconds must be pausable, stoppable, or independently volume-controllable. Beyond compliance, audio interference is a genuine barrier that can make a page effectively unusable until the offending media is muted.