Comments on: Strange sIFR / screen-reader bug

By: Mark Wubben

Mark Wubben — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:09:41 +0000

Repositioning the content is actually quite tricky, I’m not going to go there. Highlighting the Flash movie is a neat idea though.

By: Tom H

Tom H — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:47:39 +0000

I see, in that case it shouldn’t take much work to reposition the original content over the Flash.

Besides screen reader access, another accessibility issue is with links, when using a keyboard there is no way of seeing your focus (as the content is out of sight). It might be possible using JavaScript to show the hover state in Flash when the link gets focus.

By: AlastairC

AlastairC — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:02:58 +0000

The consistent thing is that the screen readers do read the HTML, it’s the Flash that isn’t consistent, so the best to hide.

By: Mark Wubben

Mark Wubben — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:14:53 +0000

Disabling Flash accessibility may be a nice trick, if it forces the screen readers to read the alternate HTML content.

Tom, sIFR puts the original content in an element after the Flash movie. This element is then made 0×0 px and positioned at the top left of the screen.

By: AlastairC

AlastairC — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:30:54 +0000

Hi Mark, I get the same results for the two I have to hand:

Jaws reads the headings in the Flash, and the regular replaced heading.
VoiceOver doesn't see the Flash at all.

Does Tom's suggest have legs?

By: Tom H

Tom H — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:41:21 +0000

Setting wmode transparent would indeed stop screen readers from accessing the Flash content, however you would also want to turn off accessibility of the Flash itself in case screen readers were able to get around that particular wmode bug in the future.

I believe sIFR wraps the original content with the Flash tag, this could potentially cause problems for screen readers, especially if wmode transparent is being used. A more robust solution might be to place the tag before the content, then make that content transparent while overlaying it over the Flash, maintining the clickability of links and selection of text (some of the more usability orientated problems!)

By: AlastairC

AlastairC — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:56:51 +0000

I’ll have a go tomorrow, but please bear in mind, some (including the Mac one) don’t support flash at all, so it would be better to hide the Flash…

By: Mark Wubben

Mark Wubben — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:55:56 +0000

Hej, it’d be pretty awesome if you could also try this with sIFR 3, latest revision. See http://novemberborn.net/sifr3 and http://dev.novemberborn.net/sifr3/nightlies for a download.

I have to say I’m not really up to date on the current level of Flash support by screen readers – but if a good amount of them read the Flash text, perhaps it’s time to hide the alternate text from the screen reader.