Flash Accessibility Design Guidelines

The release of Adobe Flash MX and Flash Player 6 marked the first accessible versions of the Flash platform. Prior to this Flash 5 was not accessible and most Flash web sites, banner ads, and other Flash media contributed to giving Flash a bad rep in the accessibility world. Also, section 508 does not apply to Flash, instead it mainly focuses on HTML content. Luckily, there are currently new tools and screen readers that work together making Flash accessible (click here for a list).

Adobe Flash CS3 Professional software offers the most powerful tools available for the development of accessible rich media. Whether using ActionScript or the Accessibility panel in Flash CS3, creating accessible Flash content can be quick and easy. Using text and text equivalents, designers and developers of Flash content can create engaging and exciting content for users of screen readers and other assistive technologies (AT).

At the same time, the screen reader environment poses new challenges. Just as designers and developers are mindful of the user experience in a browser or a standalone environment, it is important that they consider how users of assistive technologies such as screen readers will interact with Flash content.

In order for assistive technologies (AT) to convey meaningful information to users about an application's user interface, the AT first must be able to access that information from the application. Microsoft's solution to this problem is Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) and the new Microsoft UI Automation, which has been available as an add-on since Windows 95 and built into subsequent Windows releases. MSAA is a technology that provides a standard, consistent mechanism for exchanging information between applications and assistive technologies. For example, MSAA allows applications to expose screen readers to the type, name, location, and current state of all objects and notifies screen readers of any Windows event that leads to a user interface change. MSAA pulls the content out of the SWF file and puts it in what is called a data tree. From there, the screen reader sounds out the content in a linear fashion. For more details visit: http://msdn2.microsoft.com.

The following topics explain when and how to use the accessibility features in Adobe Flash CS3:

1. Text Equivalents
2. Animation
3. Accessible Components
4. Reading Order
5. Keyboard Access
6. Captions
7. Control Over Audio Playback
8. Expose Structure
9. Expose State of Controls
10. Use Color Wisely
11. Validate for Accessibility
12. Using JAWS Basics

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System Requirements:

• Flash Player 6+
• Adobe Flash MX+
• IE 5+
• Windows 98, 2000, XP, Vista

Screen Readers:

• GW Micro Window Eyes 4.2+
• Freedom Scientific JAWS 6.1+
• IBM Homepage Reader 3.04+
• Dolphin's HAL 6.5+

          Note: JAWS is the most finicky of the readers, so most likely if it works in JAWS it will work with other readers.

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