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RE: Flash and forms mode

for

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Mar 2, 2006 6:50AM

Priti,

Agreed, but the question still remains their, how does the user
come out of forms mode?

It may be necessary to do so manually in some cases, as you've
indicated. I would regard this as undesireable and would encourage
developers to test their applications with screen reader users to help
reduce this need.

Examples whereby the user is informed about successfully
completing a task after providing the last correct value in the text
input field, text is displayed on the screen stating the user about
their success. JAWS remains in forms mode, and the user has to manually
turn off forms mode to read the up-dated information. What can be the
solution for such a situation?

It depends on how the information is presented. If enough of the
content tree is changed then forms mode may go off without directing
JAWS to do so. There are additional components that can help here also
- if you use an alert component for example, you can bring this into the
application to provide the messaging and it may not be necessary for the
user to leave forms mode to complete the task.

It sounds like you are building a web application rather than what many
people think of when they think of a flash movie. In Flash applications
it is desireable to be in forms mode almost all the time.

Its been nice to hear from you, hope to hear from you soon this
time as well.

Soon enough?

AWK


Andrew Kirkpatrick
Accessibility Engineer
Adobe Systems
<EMAIL REMOVED>