Screen reader software allows people with visual disabilities to use the Internet. Screen readers speak or read text, but cannot convey images or animations. Because much Flash content is inaccessible to screen readers, it's essential to make the most of the new Flash MX accessibility options. The following five objects are defined as accessible within Flash and are passed from the Flash Player to screen reader software: Individual graphics, however, are not exposed to the screen reader. This is especially important to note with text. Any graphical text ”text that has been broken apart into shapes ”is not accessible, which can mean that entire navigation systems are inaccessible. Keep this fact in mind as you design layouts and ensure that essential menu text is created with text, not shapes . For each of the five accessible objects, Flash allows you to provide additional text descriptions ”much like ALT tags in HTML ”which make your content more useful and available to screen readers. The most powerful of these is the Name property, which can be assigned to objects and which is read aloud by screen readers. You can also specify which of the Flash objects are exposed to screen readers. |