TechNote

JAWS disables keyboard navigation in Flash movies

Issue

When JAWS for Windows screen reader is active, you cannot set focus on the Adobe Flash Player movie without using the mouse, and keyboard navigation may be disabled.

Note: Accessibility is only supported on Microsoft Internet Explorer via MSAA. In theory, any browser with support for MSAA will work with JAWS and Flash Player, however Adobe cannot guarantee that the operation of JAWS will meet accessibility standards when used on any other browser. Adobe has not verified the implementation of MSAA on any browser not listed under the System Requirements.

Additionally, Flash Player only sends MSAA information to screen readers when wmode=window. No other transparency mode is supported. For more information see "How to make a Flash movie with a transparent background" (TechNote tn_14201)

Reason

This issue is commonly encountered by developers and designers building their first accessible Flash applications who are not familiar with accessibility software.

JAWS screen reader has a number of customizable settings to change the way in which a user reads content from the screen and navigates that content. Normal navigation is overridden by the default "JAWS Cursor."

Solution

To use test the accessibility features and enable navigation of a Flash application you must enable the "Invisible cursor" and restrict the "JAWS cursor" while JAWS is running on the client machine, as documented in JAWS product help.

Do the following:

With Num Lock OFF and Jaws ON, quickly select the NUM PAD MINUS key twice.
PressINSERT+R.

This should allow navigation through the Adobe Flash Player movie (SWF), plusJAWS should read all accessible content.

By default, screen readers read all available content on the page at every opportunity. Settings in the individual accessibility client will allow the user to change how the screen is read from element to element and provide shortcuts to the end-user to aid navigation.

If your Flash movie is able to read all available accessible content, it is "accessibility compliant."