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Re: Technical explanation on how Flash interupts screen readers

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From: Birkir Rúnar Gunnarsson
Date: Nov 15, 2010 7:12AM

I do mean the virtual PC cursor, sorry for that confusion.
If you have technical resources for me on how authors can hide the
motion from a screen reader user, that would be ever so helpful.
I know that Flash, by itself, does not necessarily constitute
accessibility issues.
However I need to get down to a somewhat more technical level of when
it does so and how that can be corrected, ideally without affecting
the intended visual appearance.
I realize I may have to get quite technical to get there, but any
pointers would be helpful.
Thanks
-Birkir


On 11/15/10, Andrew Kirkpatrick < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Birkir,
> I believe that the issue with that site is how the Flash content is created,
> not necessarily that it is in Flash. The authors could easily hide the
> motion from JAWS and other screen readers, but haven't. I'm not sure why
> JAWS is jumping all over the page for you though. You mention the JAWS
> Cursor - do you mean the JAWS cursor or the Virtual PC Cursor?
>
> Thanks,
> AWK
>
> Andrew Kirkpatrick
> Group Product Manager, Accessibility
> Adobe Systems
>
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
> http://twitter.com/awkawk
> http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Birkir Rúnar
> Gunnarsson
> Sent: Sunday, November 14, 2010 10:06 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: [WebAIM] Technical explanation on how Flash interupts screen
> readers
>
> Hello everyone
>
> I need to convince a public media web site in my native country to
> stop, or reduce, their usage of Flash, since the Flash movies on their
> web site make it nearly impossible for me to read it by now, the Jaws
> scursor jumps all over the page and I cannot click on the links I plan
> to click on.
> To clarify, the web site is www.mbl.is (it is all in Icelandic).
> Is there a good explanation somehwere on what type of Flash interups
> screen reading and how that happens?
> I believe the Flash objects send out events that the screen reader
> interpetes as page refreshes and the cursor tries to jump to that
> area, but I may not be understanding this process correctly.
> If anyone can point me to a resource on this that would be very helpful.
> Thank you
> -Birkir
>