feat(a11y): wire flash-clamp into autoScrub; document 3-flash/sec audit

Clamp each per-altitude step to the WCAG 2.3.1 floor (no-op at 1200ms, guards
a future lowering). Audit: #black fade + audio crossfade can't exceed 3/sec, no
clamp needed. boot() now seeds the gate-dismissed flag (returning visitor) so
the run-sim test isn't blocked by the new interstitial.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

simulator/e2e/tests/altitude-lock.spec.ts

@@ -10,7 +10,10 @@ import { test, expect, Page } from "@playwright/test";
 // ("<scale> · <clip>  (i/n)").
 
 async function boot(page: Page) {
-  await page.addInitScript(() => localStorage.setItem("hef.devMode", "1"));
+  await page.addInitScript(() => {
+    localStorage.setItem("hef.devMode", "1");
+    localStorage.setItem("hef.motionWarnDismissed", "1"); // returning visitor: skip the photosensitivity gate
+  });
   await page.goto("/");
   // Wait for the "Loading Universe" preload to finish (splash gets class "done").
   await page.waitForFunction(

simulator/static/app.js

@@ -705,7 +705,14 @@ function autoScrub(targetPos, perAltMs = PER_ALTITUDE_MS) {
   if (autoRaf) cancelAnimationFrame(autoRaf);
   const fromPos = pos, dist = targetPos - fromPos;
   if (!dist) { setPos(targetPos); return; }
-  const ms = perAltMs * Math.abs(dist);          // constant per-altitude speed → N steps take N× as long
+  // Photosensitivity floor (WCAG 2.3.1): each altitude step is one luminance
+  // transition (a blended crossfade), so a single step must take >= 1/3 s to stay
+  // <= 3 flashes/sec. The clamp is a no-op at today's 1200ms but guards the floor
+  // if PER_ALTITUDE_MS is ever lowered. (Audit: the only other luminance sources —
+  // the #black cover fade (200ms, single, >=1.2s apart) and the audio-coupled
+  // crossfade — cannot repeat faster than 3/sec, so they need no clamp.)
+  const safeAltMs = HEFFlash.clampDurationMs(perAltMs, 1);
+  const ms = safeAltMs * Math.abs(dist);         // constant per-altitude speed → N steps take N× as long
   let startTs = null;
   const tick = (ts) => {
     if (startTs === null) startTs = ts;

simulator/static/index.html

@@ -129,6 +129,7 @@
   <script src="config.js"></script>
   <script src="scrub.js"></script>
   <script src="alteration.js"></script>
+  <script src="flash.js"></script>
   <script src="i18n.js"></script>
   <script src="app.js"></script>
 </body>