Adobe Flash —

Specify that screen readers ignore elements in your document

Screen readers follow a specific order when reading web content. However, when content on the web page changes, most screen readers will begin reading the web content all over again. This screen reader feature can be problematic when Flash content contains, for example, animation, which could cause the screen reader to begin again each time there's a change in the animation.

Fortunately, you can use the Accessibility panel to either deselect Make Object Accessible, so that the screen reader does not receive accessibility information about the object, or deselect Make Child Objects Accessible, so that the screen reader does not receive accessibility information nested within a movie clip. You'll now do the latter so that users will know the web page contains an animation, and the animation won't cause the screen reader to constantly refresh.

  1. On the Stage, click the car, which is the safety_mc movie clip instance.

  2. In the Accessibility panel, deselect Make Child Objects Accessible. In the Name text box, enter Trio ZX2004 animation. In the Description text box, enter Animation that includes three views of the Trio ZX2004.

Change static text to dynamic text for accessibility

Static text is accessible to screen readers. However, you cannot provide static text with an instance name, which is required to control the tab order and reading order. You'll change the overview text paragraph to dynamic text and specify accessibility options.

1.
On the Stage, select the text that begins "The TRIO ZX2004 provides the ultimate in efficiency...."

The Accessibility panel changes to indicate that you cannot apply accessibility features to this selection.
2.
In the Property inspector, select Dynamic Text from the Text Type pop-up menu.

Accessibility settings now appear in the Accessibility panel.
3.
In the Instance name text box, enter text9_txt.

Note

To specify a tab order and reading order, which you'll do next, you must provide an instance name for all instances. The instance name must be unique in your document.