Pointer gestures
Pinches, swipes, and traced shapes need a simple one-pointer option, such as zoom buttons or Previous and Next controls.
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What it is
Pointer gestures are interactions whose result depends on multiple contact points or on the path the pointer traces. Pinch-to-zoom is multipoint; swiping through a carousel or drawing a shape is path-based. WCAG SC 2.5.1 Pointer Gestures requires the same function to work with a single pointer and no path-based gesture unless that gesture is essential.
Add zoom buttons beside a pinchable map, Previous and Next buttons beside a swipeable carousel, and a tap-based destination picker beside a route drawn across a screen. Keep the gesture as a shortcut for people who like it, but make the simpler controls visible and large enough to operate accurately.
Do not confuse a path gesture with every pointer movement. In a drag, only the start and end positions may matter; in a swipe or traced shape, the route, direction, or speed matters too. Handwriting and freehand drawing can be essential, but a carousel swipe is not essential when buttons can produce the same result.
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Preserve the existing pinch, swipe, or traced gesture as an enhancement, then expose every nonessential result through simple single-pointer controls. Add native Zoom in and Zoom out buttons for pinch zoom, and Previous and Next buttons for swipe navigation. Give each control a visible label, at least a 24 by 24 CSS pixel target, and the same state updates as the Pointer Events API gesture handler. Do not set touch-action: none on the page or block browser zoom. Test each action with one tap, a mouse click, keyboard activation, and a touch pointer, and document any gesture kept as essential because its traced path itself is the input, such as handwriting.