MACROMEDIA FLASH MX 2004-USING FLASH Use Manual page 364

Hiding an object from the screen reader
You can hide an object from the screen reader simply by turning off accessibility for the object.
You should only hide objects that are repetitive or convey no content. When an object is hidden,
the screen reader ignores the object.
On the Stage, select the button or input text field you want to hide from the screen reader.
1.
Do one of the following:
2.
Select Window > Properties if the inspector is not visible. In the Property inspector, click
the Accessibility button.
Select Window > Other Panels > Accessibility.
In the Accessibility panel, do one of the following:
3.
If the object is a movie clip, button, text field, or another object, deselect Make
Object Accessible.
If the object is the child of a movie clip, deselect Make Child Objects Accessible.
Creating a keyboard shortcut
You can create a keyboard shortcut for an object, such as a button, so users can quickly navigate to
it without listening to the contents of an entire page. For example, you can create a keyboard
shortcut so users can quickly navigate to a menu, a toolbar, the next page, or a submit button.
Two steps are required to create a keyboard shortcut:
•
Code the ActionScript to create a keyboard shortcut for an object. See
ActionScript Language Reference. If you provide a keyboard shortcut for an input text field or
button, you must also use the ActionScript Key class to detect the key the user presses during
Flash content playback. See "Capturing keypresses" in Using ActionScript in Flash.
•
Select the object and add the name of the keyboard shortcut to the Accessibility panel so the
screen reader can read it.
Keyboard shortcut functionality also depends on the screen reader software used. Make sure to
test your Flash content with multiple screen readers. The key combination Control+F, for
example, is a reserved keystroke for both the browser and the screen reader. The arrow keys are
also reserved by the screen reader. Generally, you can use the keys 0-9 on the keyboard for
keyboard shortcuts. However, even these keys are increasingly used by screen readers, so it is very
important to test your keyboard shortcuts. See
To indicate the name of a keyboard shortcut for the screen reader:
On the Stage, select the button or input text field for which you want to create a
1.
keyboard shortcut.
Do one of the following:
2.
Select Window > Properties if the inspector is not visible. In the Property inspector, click
the Accessibility button.
Select Window > Other Panels > Accessibility.
364 Chapter 17: Creating Accessible Content
"Testing accessible content" on page
in Flash
"Key class"
373.