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Flash banner with rotating images

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From: Jan Heck
Date: Sep 17, 2008 4:40PM

I have a question about a Flash banner with rotating, linked images which
appears on the home page of my college's Web site
(http://www.coastline.edu/). The banner is used to promote various college
programs and services; as each image comes up, it is "clickable" to take the
user to the page for that program or service.



I am not a Flash programmer and I am a novice using JAWS for testing.
However, when I have JAWS read the entire page to me, it seems to skip over
the banner altogether. So my guess is that these links are invisible and
inaccessible to screen reader users.



Here's the code used to insert the banner:

<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="spotlight.swf"
height="193" width="519">

<param name="movie" value="spotlight.swf">

<img
src="http://www.coastline.edu/resources/images/spotlight/defaultBanner.jpg"
alt="Apply to Coastline Community College." height="194" width="516">

</object>



My questions for anybody willing to take a quick look at it are:

1. Am I correct that screen readers cannot access the rotating banner
as is?

2. What verbiage can I use to communicate to the Flash programmer what
needs to be changed to "fix" it, if indeed a fix is possible?

3. If no fix is possible, is there an accessible way to accomplish the
same feature, i.e., a rotating banner with each image having its own
hyperlink?



I thank you very much for any insight you can give me, and I apologize for
the cross-postings.



--

Jan Heck

<EMAIL REMOVED>