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Accessibility Pause Animated Gifs

Adds pause/play controls to animated GIFs on WordPress sites to improve accessibility and meet WCAG 2.2.2 compliance.

by Equalize Digital · github.com/equalizedigital/accessibility-pause-animated-gifs · website

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Install

No release zip yet. The repository archive installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow:

wp plugin install https://github.com/equalizedigital/accessibility-pause-animated-gifs/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
Readme github.com/equalizedigital/accessibility-pause-animated-gifs ↗

Equalize Digital Accessibility Pause Animated GIFs

A WordPress plugin that adds play/pause controls to animated GIFs for better accessibility and user experience.

Description

This plugin automatically detects animated GIFs on your WordPress site and adds play/pause controls, allowing users to:

  • Pause distracting animations
  • Reduce motion sensitivity issues
  • Control when animations play
  • Improve focus and readability

This plugin helps websites meet WCAG 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide requirements by providing mechanisms to pause, stop, or hide any moving or auto-updating information.

Accessibility Standards

This plugin specifically addresses:

  • WCAG 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide (Level A): For any moving, blinking or scrolling information that (1) starts automatically, (2) lasts more than five seconds, and (3) is presented in parallel with other content, there is a mechanism for the user to pause, stop, or hide it.

Installation

From a release (recommended)

Don't use the green "Code > Download ZIP" button on the repository page. That zip is the raw source code. It doesn't include the vendor/ (Composer) or build/ (JavaScript) folders the plugin needs, so it won't load and no settings page will appear.

  1. Go to the Releases page and download the latest accessibility-pause-animated-gifs-vX.X.X.zip from the Assets section.
  2. In WordPress, go to Plugins > Add New Plugin > Upload Plugin, choose the zip, and click Install Now. (Or unzip it into /wp-content/plugins/.)
  3. Activate the plugin from the Plugins screen.
  4. Configure it under Settings > Pause Animated GIFs.

From source (developers)

If you clone the repository or download the source, you must install dependencies and build the assets before activating:

composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
npm install
npm run build

If vendor/autoload.php is missing, the plugin shows an admin notice ("Please run composer install in the plugin directory.") and does not load, so its settings page won't appear.

Features

  • Automatic detection of animated GIFs
  • Individual play/pause controls for each GIF
  • Optional global pause button for all animations
  • Customizable button styling
  • WCAG accessibility compliance
  • Performance optimized

Configuration

General Settings

  • Container: Specify where to add pause buttons (default: 'body')
  • Exclusions: Exclude specific GIFs or regions using CSS selectors
  • Inherit Classes: Copy classes from original GIF to canvas element
  • Initially Paused: Start all GIFs in paused state
  • Shared Pause Button: Use one button to control all GIFs
  • Show Buttons: Toggle visibility of control buttons
  • Target: Target specific images using CSS selectors

Button Styling

  • Background color
  • Hover state
  • Border style
  • Border radius
  • Icon color
  • Focus indicators
  • Icon size

Language Settings

Customize button text and labels for:

  • Pause button
  • Play button
  • Pause all button
  • Play all button

Development

Requirements

  • Node.js
  • Composer
  • WordPress 5.0+
  • PHP 7.4+

Building

composer install
npm install
npm run build

Support

For support, please open an issue on GitHub.

License

This project is licensed under the GPL v2 or later - see the LICENSE file for details.

Credits

Developed by Equalize Digital