A screen reader is software designed to navigate through a website and read the web content aloud. Visually impaired users often rely on this technology. You can create content designed for use with screen readers for Microsoft® Windows® platforms only. Users who view your content must have Adobe® Flash® Player 9 or later, and Internet Explorer on Windows 2000 or Windows XP or later.

JAWS, from Freedom Scientific, is one example of screen reader software. You can access the JAWS page on the Freedom Scientific website at www.hj.com/fs_products/software_jaws.asp. Another commonly used screen reader program is Window-Eyes, from GW Micro. To access the latest information on Window-Eyes, visit the GW Micro website at www.gwmicro.com.

Screen readers help users understand what is contained in a web page or Flex application. Based on the keyboard shortcuts that you define, you can let users easily navigate through your application by using the screen reader.

Because different screen reader applications use various methods to translate information into speech, your content will vary in how it's presented to each user. As you design accessible applications, keep in mind that you have no control over how a screen reader behaves. You can only mark up the content in your applications so that you expose the text and ensure that screen reader users can activate the controls. This means that you can decide which objects in the application are exposed to screen readers, provide descriptions for the objects, and decide the order in which the objects are exposed to screen readers. However, you cannot force screen readers to read specific text at specific times or control the manner in which that content is read.

To use a JAWS screen reader with a Flex application, users must download a set of scripts before invoking the Flex application. For more information, see Configuring a JAWS screen reader for Flex applications.

Flash Player and Microsoft Active Accessibility

Adobe Flash Player uses Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA), which provides a descriptive and standardized way for applications and screen readers to communicate. MSAA is available for Windows operating systems only. For more information on Microsoft Accessibility Technology, visit the Microsoft Accessibility website at www.microsoft.com/enable/default.aspx.

The Windows ActiveX (Internet Explorer plug-in) version of Flash Player 9 supports MSAA, but the Windows Netscape and Windows stand-alone players currently do not.

Flex supports a debugger version of Flash Player that can display debugging information during run time and generate profiling information so that you can more easily develop applications. However, the debugger version of Flash Player does not support accessibility.