You can create content that is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities, using the accessibility features that Adobe® Flash® CS4 Professional provides in the authoring environment user interface, taking advantage of ActionScript® designed to implement accessibility. As you design accessible Flash applications, consider how users might interact with the content and follow recommended design and development practices.

For a tutorial about accessible content, see Create Accessible Flash Content on the Flash Tutorials page at www.adobe.com/go/learn_fl_tutorials.

For a sample of accessible rich media content, see the Flash Samples page at www.adobe.com/go/learn_fl_samples. Download and decompress the Samples zip file and navigate to the Accessibility\AccessibleApplications folder to access the sample.

For the latest information on creating and viewing accessible Flash content, including supported platforms, screen reader compatibility, articles, and accessible examples, see the Flash Accessibility web page at www.adobe.com/go/flash_accessibility/.

Many countries have adopted accessibility standards based on the standards developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The W3C publishes the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, a document that prioritizes actions designers should take to make web content accessible. For information about the Web Accessibility Initiative, see the W3C website at w3.org.

In the United States, the law that governs accessibility is commonly known as Section 508, which is an amendment to the U.S. Rehabilitation Act.

For additional information about Section 508, see the following websites:

• The US government-sponsored website at section508.gov

• The Adobe accessibility site at www.adobe.com/accessibility/

Screen readers are software applications that visually impaired users can use to navigate a website and read the web content aloud. To enable a screen reader to read nontextual objects in your application, such as vector art and animations, use the Accessibility panel to associate a name and description with the object. The keyboard shortcuts you define can allow users to use the screen reader to navigate through your document with ease.

To expose graphic objects, use the Accessibility panel or ActionScript to provide a description.

You cannot control how any screen reader behaves; you can control only the content, which you can mark up in your Flash applications to expose the text and ensure that screen reader users can activate the controls. You decide which objects in the Flash application are exposed to screen readers, provide descriptions for them, and decide the order in which they are exposed to screen readers. You cannot force screen readers to read specific text at specific times or control the manner in which that content is read. Test your applications with a variety of screen readers to ensure that they perform as you expect.

Sound is the most important medium for most screen reader users. Consider how any sound in your document interacts with the text spoken aloud by screen readers. It might be difficult for screen reader users to hear what their screen readers are saying if your Flash application contains loud sounds.

Flash Player is optimized for Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA), which provides a descriptive and standardized way for applications and screen readers to communicate. MSAA is available only for Windows operating systems. For more information on Microsoft Accessibility Technology, visit the Microsoft Accessibility website at www.microsoft.com/enable/default.aspx.

The Windows ActiveX (Internet Explorer plug‑in) version of Flash Player 6 supports MSAA, but Windows Netscape and Windows stand-alone players do not.

Flash Player makes information about the following types of accessibility objects available to screen readers that use MSAA.

Dynamic or static text

The principal property of a text object is its name. To comply with MSAA conventions, the name is equal to the contents of the text string. A text object can also have an associated description string. Flash uses the static or dynamic text immediately above or to the left of an input text field as a label for that field.

Note: Any text that is a label is not passed to a screen reader, but is used as the name of the object that it labels. Labels are never assigned to buttons or text fields that have author-supplied names.

Input text fields

Have a value, an optional name, a description string, and a keyboard shortcut string. An input text object’s name can come from a text object that is above or to the left of it.

Buttons

Have a state (pressed or not pressed), support a programmatic default action that causes the button to depress momentarily, and optionally have a name, a description string, and a keyboard-shortcut string. Flash uses any text entirely inside a button as a label for that button.

Note: For accessibility purposes, Flash Player considers movie clips used as buttons with button event handlers such as onPress to be buttons, not movie clips.

Components

Provide special accessibility implementation.

Movie clips

Exposed to screen readers as graphic objects when they do not contain any other accessible objects, or when you use the Accessibility panel to provide a name or a description for a movie clip. When a movie clip contains other accessible objects, the clip itself is ignored, and the objects inside it are made available to screen readers.

Note: All Flash Video objects are treated as simple movie clips.

By default, the following objects are defined as accessible in all Flash documents and are included in the information that Flash Player provides to screen reader software. This generic support for documents that do not use any accessibility features includes the following:

Dynamic or static text

Text is transferred to the screen reader program as a name, but with no description.

Input text fields

Text is transferred to the screen reader. No names are transferred, except where a labeling relationship is found for the input text, such as a static text field positioned close to the input text field. No descriptions or keyboard shortcut strings are transferred.

Buttons

The state of the button is transferred to the screen reader. No names are transferred, except where labeling relationships are found, and no descriptions or keyboard shortcut strings are transferred.

Documents

The document state is transferred to the screen reader, but with no name or description.

Include captions for audio content that is integral to comprehending the material. A video of a speech, for example, might require captions for accessibility, but a quick sound associated with a button probably wouldn’t.

Methods to add captions to a Flash document include the following:

• Add text as captions, ensuring that the captions are synchronized with the audio in the Timeline.

• Use Hi-Caption Viewer, a component available from Hi Software that works with Hi-Caption SE for use with Flash (see www.adobe.com/go/accessible_captions). Captioning Macromedia Flash Movies with Hi-Caption SE, a white paper, explains how to use Hi-Caption SE and Flash together to create a captioned document (see www.adobe.com/go/accessibility_papers).

1. Select the object for which you want to change the accessibility properties.
2. Select Window > Other Panels > Accessibility.
3. Change the properties for the object.

   Alternatively, use ActionScript to update accessibility properties.

When you test your accessible Flash applications, follow these recommendations:

• Download several screen readers and test your application by playing it in a browser with the screen reader enabled. Check that the screen reader is not attempting to “talk over” places in your document where you inserted separate audio. Several screen reader applications provide a demonstration version of the software as a free download; test as many screen readers as you can to ensure compatibility across screen readers.

• Test interactive content and verify that users can navigate your content effectively using only the keyboard. Different screen readers work in different ways when processing input from the keyboard; your Flash content might not receive keystrokes as you intended. Test all keyboard shortcuts.