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Flash
There is good news and bad news about Flash accessibility. Although Flash has become more accessible it still does not have equivalent accessibility to h t m l documents. Designers still have to provide alternative text for those using older assistive technology and pre-Flash 6.0 players. They also have to provide accessible content for even the latest versions of JAWS and Window-Eyes. There are examples of each in this section, and links to additional resources.
Good News about Flash
The good news is that the most current Flash player, Flash 6.0, has features that can make Flash more accessible. It does this by translating text and button symbols into Microsoft Active Accessibility (M S A A) code so that they can be read by screen readers as labels. This is true for Flash content developed in Flash MX, as well as Flash versions 4.0 and 5.0.
Also, the current Flash application, Flash MX, has an Accessibility panel that allows designers to provide descriptive labels using Name and Description fields. M S A A then passes this information on to assistive technologies so they can be read. It also has a feature that enables designers to control when labels can be accessed, so that irrelevant detail or description can be avoided.
The bad news is that only one screen reader (Window Eyes 4.2) supports those features, that accessibility still depends on whether the designer has labeled these elements meaningfully, and that not everyone has the latest Flash player or assistive technology. There does not appear to be an easy way for users to move between a Flash file and the page in which it is embedded, so users may become stranded. And Flash accessible content is limited to button and symbol labels, and Flash file descriptions. Links, for example, are not recognized by assistive technology.
Therefore, developers still must provide alternatives to content contained in Flash files.
Typically, equivalent content needs to be provided as follows: when Embed is used use No Embed, when Script is used to detect or launch include No Script controls, and provide descriptions for nested Object elements at the lowest possible level.
Code Example:
Window-Eyes 4.2 does not read the links list in Flash, making it even more important that buttons are labeled in a meaningful way. Flash player 6.0 by default reads the text contained in a button and identifies it as a label, so check to see if it is sufficient. If it is not, create more meaningful text using the Name field in the Flash MX accessibility panel; if necessary, add more text using the Description field. If there is more than one text symbol present in a button, Flash will identify the one closest to the upper left as a label and it will be read by assistive technology.
Code Example:
Macromedia has developed a Flash Accessibility Developers Kit (www.macromedia.com/macromedia/ accessibility/features/flash/) that contains source files for audio, text equivalents, keyboard access and tabbing, as well as an Accessibility HTML Template.
See also "The Flash Usability Guide," by Chris MacGregor, friends of ED, for a fine introduction to usability in general and for Flash websites in particular. Chapter 9 is devoted to making Flash accessible.
