Introduction

Text equivalents must be provided in Flash for every non-text element that conveys important content. This means that graphics, animations, and video must have textual equivalents that can be accessed by someone who cannot see those elements. Also, a textual equivalent (captions and/or transcripts) must be provided for all audio content that is not also conveyed through the visual elements of the presentation.

Text Equivalents

How Flash Text Equivalents Work

By default, text inside of Flash is exposed to the screen reader through MSAA. There isn’t anything special you have to do to make your text accessible to screen readers. If your Flash movie is nothing more than static text, then it will probably be accessible to screen readers without any other modifications. Of course, Flash is rarely used to display static text. While text elements do not require modification by the designer/developer, other elements do. Designers and developers may use the Accessibility panel in Flash to add a text equivalent or even to hide elements from assistive technologies. View a text-only example ().

When a screen reader accesses a page that contains Flash content, it indicates so. JAWS reads, « Flash Movie Start » (this is customizable in the JAWS settings) and Window-Eyes reads, « Has Flash ». This alerts the user to what is happening if the page suddenly begins reading confusing information or if the page does not seem to be keyboard accessible because of the Flash content. When the Flash movie is accessed, the screen reader will read all of the text and text alternatives within the Flash movie. When it is done, it will indicate that it is done. As long as the text is within the Flash movie when the screen reader accesses it, it will be read.

Because of the linear nature of screen readers, they can only read the content that is exposed to them at the moment they access a particular place within your Flash movie. For instance, if you have a series of quotes that randomly display every 10 seconds within your Flash movie, the screen reader will only read the quote that is currently displayed when that portion of the Flash movie is accessed. If the quote changes while that Flash element is being accessed, then the screen reader is alerted that something has changed and it begins reading again at the top of the page. The fact that a screen reader starts at the top of the page if any text object on the page changes while the screen reader has access to it is what makes the vast majority of Flash content inaccessible to screen readers.

View an animating text example ().

You can avoid this problem by either avoiding animating text objects in Flash or by hiding them from the screen reader as demonstrated later in this tutorial.

Any text that is within the Flash movie is read when the screen reader accesses the movie. This includes text that is within buttons. Beginning with the Flash MX authoring environment, you can add textual equivalents to graphical elements, as long as the elements are defined as movie clips symbols or buttons. Text equivalents are not supported on symbols defined with the « graphic » behavior. If a graphical item does not have alternative text defined for it, then the screen reader ignores it.

View a graphic example (). This example does not have a text equivalent added, so the screen reader will ignore it.

Adding Text Equivalents

To add a text equivalent, select an item on the stage and enter a short description of the object into the Name text box on the Accessibility panel. If a longer description is needed, it can be added to the Description field on the Accessibility panel. The screen reader will now read this text in place of the object. View an accessible graphic example (). Be aware that the Name and Description are totally invisible, except to screen readers. You do not get any visual indication or tool tip for textual equivalents. Items that are already text within Flash do not need a text equivalent as the text itself will be read. Make sure that the text items are truly text and form intelligible words. Graphical shapes and multiple text elements that are placed together to visibly form words will not be read correctly as text. In such cases, these elements should be placed within a movie clip symbol which is assigned the appropriate alternative text for the group in the Name field. Deselect the Make Child Object Accessible option on the Accessibility panel to hide the internal contents of the movie clip symbol from the screen reader. Equivalents may be added to text items if they are defined as dynamic text, in which case the text within the dynamic text box will be ignored and the equivalent text will be read instead.

The text equivalent (Name or Description) does not have to be exactly the same as the content. You can provide additional or less information as desired. The same techniques for determining alt text for HTML images should be used when assigning alternative text in Flash. However, because of its dynamic nature, sometimes an exact equivalent may not be appropriate. For instance, if a movie has dozens of words flying around the screen to draw attention, it may not be appropriate to provide alternative text for all of them. Instead, you might either provide alternative text for one or two or describe in general what is happening; or, you may provide no alternative to the words at all, if you determine that they provide no important content.

As previously discussed, if you animate text, the Flash movie indicates that there is a change in the movie and the screen reader may begin reading at the top of the page. However, animating graphics are not a problem for screen reader users because the text equivalent for the graphic (if provided) will be read. Animated graphics may be a problem for someone with photosensitive epilepsy if the animation causes blinking or flickering. View an accessible animated graphic ().

Providing Text Equivalents for the Entire Movie

If it is appropriate, you can easily provide a text equivalent for your entire movie, rather than worrying about trying to get individual parts of the movie to be accessible. This would be similar to providing an alternative text for an entire web page. Just deselect everything on the Flash stage, select the Accessibility panel, and deselect Make Child Objects Accessible to hide the internal contents of the movie. Then deselect Auto Label and add a brief Name and if needed, a longer Description.

Most Flash advertisements could be made more accessible in this manner, though if they contain a button, they may interfere with keyboard navigation, as described in the Keyboard accessibility section. View a movie with text equivalent ()