Flash Accessibility Best Practices

When developing accessible Flash content, you should adhere to the following basic rules:

• Provide text equivalents
• Provide context
• Control reading order
• Control animation
• Ensure keyboard access
• Use progressive disclosure
• Enable component accessibility
• Provide captions
• Provide control over audio playback
• Use color wisely
• Support users with low vision
• Embed Flash accessibly

This list is not intended to be fixed, nor is it comprehensive. It is up to designers to make decisions about individual applications and whether they meet the requirements as outlined in the use case scenarios.

The following sections describe how to follow these best practices.

Provide Text Equivalents

Screen readers are not able to discern the meaning of graphic or animated elements on the stage. As a result, designers must provide a brief text description of graphic elements. You can provide text equivalents for an entire Flash movie, a single object within a movie, or a group of objects within a movie.