Accessibility Issue: Reduce Motion option is needed to stop animated gray bars

Dup check

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Summary

I have noticed an accessibility issue with Gitlab, which makes the web interface 95% inaccessible for me.

When viewing files and directories in the web interface, in some directories, the last commit and last update don't appear as text, instead they appear as an animated gray image. It looks like a long, narrow, gray rounded rectangle, with a lighter gray highlight that travels down the length of the bar. The animation repeats about once per second.

As somebody with ADHD symptoms, my ability to read and understand written text decreases profoundly (almost to nil) when any animation is visible on the screen.

I typically use Gitlab as part of the UW CSE deployment of Gitlab, managed by our internal support team. I spoke with a member of the support team and came to understand that the reason the dates aren't loading has to do with a permanent issue on the web server. So the problem is worse for my organization's deployment of Gitlab than it would be for other deployments because for us the date stamps never load. But it is still an accessibility problem for everyone who has a noticeable lag in the loading speed of the gitlab website because those gray bars appear for several seconds.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Visit https://gitlab.cs.washington.edu/cse374-23wi/cse374-23wi-grading/-/tree/main/sp22/cse374-22sp-master .
  2. I know that the date stamps under "last commit" and "last update" are never going to load, because of a global issue with my organization's web server.

3a. Actual behavior: As a placeholder in place of the date stamps, I see an animated gray bar that NEVER stops moving, and there is no way to block it out or stop it.

3b. Expected behavior: As a placeholder in place of the date stamps, there should be a static image or error message that DOESN'T move.

Example Project

According to my organization's support team, the issue is not reproducible in a test environment.

What is the current bug behavior?

3a. Actual behavior: As a placeholder in place of the date stamps, I see an animated gray bar that NEVER stops moving, and there is no way to block it out or stop it.

What is the expected correct behavior?

3b. Expected behavior: As a placeholder in place of the date stamps, there should be a static image or error message that DOESN'T move.

Relevant logs and/or screenshots

Screenshot of the gray bars. This is a static screenshot of one frame of the animation. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HbRUoC2jQnz8gvPQOaVz3zUQgSU3Xh8p/view?usp=share_link

Output of checks

N/A

Results of GitLab environment info

I am not an administrator and do not have access to this information.

Expand for output related to GitLab environment info 
(For installations with omnibus-gitlab package run and paste the output of:
`sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:env:info`)

(For installations from source run and paste the output of:
`sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:env:info RAILS_ENV=production`)

Results of GitLab application Check

I am not an administrator and do not have access to this information.

Expand for output related to the GitLab application check 
(For installations with omnibus-gitlab package run and paste the output of:
sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:check SANITIZE=true)


(For installations from source run and paste the output of:
sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:check RAILS_ENV=production SANITIZE=true)


(we will only investigate if the tests are passing)

Possible fixes

  1. Use static assets and not animated assets everywhere on gitlab websites all the time unconditionally.
  2. Accessibility Button. Add a button to this menu bar. When clicked, the button displays a list of accessibility options. The user can click "Pause Animations," and all animated assets will be replaced with static assets.