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RE: Does visual layout matter for screen reader users?

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From: Sinead Hogan
Date: Oct 25, 2005 10:40AM


Yes I have tried defining a tab order but its a bit of a nightmare for the particular app I'm working on. This problem has arisen with only one interaction type. Thankfully, the default tab/read order that Flash determines has worked very well for all of the other assessment/interaction types. I may eventually have to define the tab order and all that entails, but if this quick solution could work, it would be a lot easier.

Regarding your comment on keyboard users; The default tab order is turning out to be different from the default read order. The tab order when a screen reader is not active will remain in the main content swf, before moving up to the host swf. When a screen reader is active all elements are read out according to their screen layout regardless of which swf they're in. So for keyboard use - though not ideal - the default tab order works well enough.

Still hoping my quick fix will do... ?

Thanks again,
Sinead.




-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> on behalf of Andrew Kirkpatrick
Sent: Tue 25/10/2005 09:43
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Cc:
Subject: RE: [WebAIM] Does visual layout matter for screen reader users?



Sinead,
Have you tried modifying the taborder? The reading order for screen readers is derived from the tab order, so if you set the taborder for different objects:

thisobject.tabIndex = 1;
tahtobject.tabIndex = 2;

you'll get the desired behavior without resorting to a separate version.

A keyboard-only user will not necessarily use a screen reader (most screen reader users are keyboard users, and most keyboard users are not screen reader users), but will certainly benefit from good tab order.

AWK