meta-refresh-no-exceptions

Page must not use a meta refresh at all (AAA)

automaticWCAG 2.2.4, 3.2.5 (AAA)confidence: highseverity: moderateoperable

Checks that <meta http-equiv="refresh"> is not present at all, regardless of delay. This is the stricter AAA-level counterpart of the A-level positive-delay-only check.

Applies to. Applies to the first <meta http-equiv="refresh"> element, in document order, with a valid content attribute, per HTML's shared declarative refresh steps, a document only ever acts on its first valid meta refresh, so a later one (valid or not) is inert and out of scope.

Expectation. Running the shared declarative refresh steps against that element's content value results in a delay of exactly 0. An immediate (delay=0) redirect still passes at AAA, same as the A-level rule. There is nothing for a user to be interrupted mid-read by when nothing is displayed first. Any positive delay fails, with none of the A-level rule's >20-hour exemption: at AAA, WCAG 2.2.4 (Interruptions) and 3.2.5 (Change on Request) require that a *timed* automatic context change happen only at the user's request, regardless of how long the timer is.

Examples

pass
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; URL=/x">

A delay of exactly 0 is an immediate redirect; there's nothing to interrupt a user mid-read.

fail
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="30; URL=/x">

At AAA, any positive delay fails, with no exemption for a long delay.

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