401972 - Accessibility: Flash object is skipped when using the tab key. You also cannot tab out of the selected Flash object.

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 93149

(Firefox :: Disability Access, defect)

Description

[Scott Rippon]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8

It is common for user with motor disabilities (http://www.webaim.org/articles/motor/) to solely rely on using their keyboard to operate their computer/browser.

On my WinXP SP2 computer using FF 2.0.0.8 I have noticed that in pages with embedded Flash objects the object (and the elements within the Flash object) aren't highlighted when using the tab key to move through the links.  You have to use the mouse to click on the object before you can tab through it's elements.  For users unable to use the mouse this will cause real difficulties.

Another related problem is that once the Flash object has focus you cannot use the tab key to tab out of the object to the next link.  You have to use the mouse again to click outside the object before being able use the tab key.

Here are the details on the plugins:

Shockwave Flash
File name: NPSWF32.dll
Shockwave Flash 9.0 r47

Shockwave for Director
File name: np32dsw.dll
Adobe Shockwave for Director Netscape plug-in, version 10.1

Sorry if this has already been reported.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go to a page which has an embedded Flash object.
2. Using only the tab key try to tab to the Flash object and through its elements.
Actual Results:  
The focus skips over the Flash object.

Expected Results:  
You should be able to use the tab key, or the Shift-Tab combination, to move through the links and the Flash object(s) within a page.  Once the Flash object is highlighted you should be able to then tab through the elements within that object.  Once you've tabbed through all the elements in the Flash object pressing Tab again will move the focus from the object to the next link on the page.

In IE 6.x when tabbing through the links Flash objects are also highlighted.  When the object is highlighted for the first time the user is notified with this message:

"Press SPACEBAR or ENTER to activate and use this control"

Pressing tab again will cause you to skip over the object.  If you press spacebar or enter the first element in the Flash object becomes highlighted.  You can then tab through and out of the object.

Comment 1

[Aaron Leventhal]

Believe it or not, this is on purpose. It's a temporary band-aid to the fact that we cannot tab back *out* of plugins. We don't want keyboard-only users to get stuck in plugins.

Yes, we realize it's a serious problem and a section 508 issues and unfortunately we still don't have a developer to work on it. It won't be fixed until after Firefox 3.