Carousels, also known as sliders or rotating banners, can be problematic for users with disabilities in a number of ways:
- Focus management: Carousels often cycle through content automatically, which can make it difficult for users who rely on keyboard navigation to keep track of which slide is currently in focus. This can be particularly challenging for users with cognitive or motor impairments.
- Accessibility of controls: Carousels often include navigation controls (such as "previous" and "next" buttons) that are not accessible to users with disabilities. For example, the controls may not be labeled, or they may be too small to be easily tapped on a mobile device.
- Movement and flashing: Carousels often cycle through content quickly, which can be disorienting for users with cognitive or visual impairments. Additionally, carousels may include flashing or rapidly changing content, which can be a seizure trigger for users with photosensitive epilepsy.
- Inaccessible content: Carousels often include images, videos and other multimedia that may not be accessible to users with disabilities. For example, images may not have alternative text, videos may not have captions, and audio content may not have transcripts.
- Keyboard traps: Carousels can also trap keyboard users, making it difficult to move out of the carousel, and preventing them from accessing the rest of the page.
To make carousels more accessible, designers and developers can add features such as pause/play controls, providing alternative text for all non-text content, and allowing users to navigate through the carousel using the keyboard. The use of carousels should be carefully evaluated to see if they really contribute to the overall user experience or not, and if they don't, they should be avoided altogether.