Back Every Gesture With a Simple Control
MUST: Any multipoint or path-based gesture (swipe, pinch, two-finger rotate, traced path) needs a discrete single-pointer control beside it — Prev/Next buttons, real pagination dot buttons, +/− zoom, arrow keys on the focused region. WCAG SC 2.5.1 Pointer Gestures, Level A. A drawing canvas is essential; a carousel never is.
Pair swipes, pinches and traced paths with buttons or keys that need no path at all
Bad
Good
Why it matters
The sibling of "Never Make Dragging the Only Path" (SC 2.5.7), and the two are constantly confused. 2.5.7 is about dragging — press, travel, release, where the travel is what moves the thing. This one, 2.5.1, is about gestures whose SHAPE or number of contact points carries the meaning: a swipe, a pinch-zoom, a two-finger rotate, a drawn checkmark, a slider you can only operate by tracing.
It is Level A, one step stricter, because a swipe-only carousel does not merely inconvenience someone — it walls off the content entirely. The remedy is the same shape as 2.5.7's: keep the gesture as an accelerator for the people who like it, and put a discrete single-pointer control next to it. Prev / Next buttons, pagination dots that are real buttons, +/− zoom controls, arrow-key handling on the focused region. "Essential" is narrow: a drawing canvas or a map that genuinely requires a free-form path qualifies; a carousel never does.