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wmode="transparent"?

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From: Patrick Burke
Date: Oct 3, 2012 2:58PM

>Hi all,

I'm wondering if anyone has the real-deal story on
wmode="transparent", particularly related to Jaws.

Some (old) articles recommend Transparent as a way to make Flash
movies accessible. Others say that Transparent makes the Flash window
invisible to screen readers (I thought this was the expected behavior).

Some tests are at:
http://www.dhs.state.il.us/accessibility/tests/flash/flashtest.html
They map out the variations in SR behavior, but they also seem to be
a couple years old.

I have an example of a page that I'm testing:
http://giveto.ucla.edu
Jaws 12 reads the transparent object in IE8, but Jaws 13 ignores it.
(Both versions ignore it in Firefox.)

So, is Transparent a bug or a feature? Do we *want* screen readers to
ignore it, to remove annoying clutter? Or is access to Transparent a
barrier that needs to be solved? ... IS IT TRUE that the Mayans used
Transparent Flash to communicate with ancient Egypt? So many
unanswered questions! ...

Thanks much for any ideas,

Patrick


--
Patrick J. Burke

Coordinator
UCLA Disabilities &
Computing Program

Phone: 310 206-6004
E-mail: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Location: 4909 Math Science


Department Contact: <EMAIL REMOVED>