Can I change the scroll speed using css or jQuery?

The scroll speed CAN be changed, adjusted, reversed, all of the above – via javascript (or a js library such as jQuery).

WHY would you want to do this? Parallax is just one of the reasons. I have no idea why anyone would argue against doing so — the same negative arguments can be made against hiding DIVs, sliding elements up/down, etc. Websites are always a combination of technical functionality and UX design — a good designer can use almost any technical capability to improve UX. That is what makes him/her good.

Toni Almeida of Portugal created a brilliant demo, reproduced below:

jsFiddle Demo

HTML:

<div id="myDiv">
    Use the mouse wheel (not the scroll bar) to scroll this DIV. You will see that the scroll eventually slows down, and then stops. <span class="boldit">Use the mouse wheel (not the scroll bar) to scroll this DIV. You will see that the scroll eventually slows down, and then stops. </span>
</div>

javascript/jQuery:

  function wheel(event) {
      var delta = 0;
      if (event.wheelDelta) {(delta = event.wheelDelta / 120);}
      else if (event.detail) {(delta = -event.detail / 3);}

      handle(delta);
      if (event.preventDefault) {(event.preventDefault());}
      event.returnValue = false;
  }

  function handle(delta) {
      var time = 1000;
      var distance = 300;

      $('html, body').stop().animate({
          scrollTop: $(window).scrollTop() - (distance * delta)
      }, time );
  }

  if (window.addEventListener) {window.addEventListener('DOMMouseScroll', wheel, false);}
    window.onmousewheel = document.onmousewheel = wheel;

Source:

How to change default scrollspeed,scrollamount,scrollinertia of a webpage