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Technique FLASH31:Specifying caption text for a DataGrid

Obsolete

Adobe stopped updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020, and encourages authors interested in creating accessible web content to use HTML.

About this Technique

This technique is not referenced from any Understanding document.

This technique applies to content implemented in Adobe Flash.

Description

The objective of this technique is to programmatically associate captions for DataGrids where captions are provided in the presentation. Normally, the caption for a table is a table identifier and acts like a title or heading for the table.

Flash does not have a caption element for the DataGrid component, but the same effect can be achieved through the following approach:

  1. Place a label component or textfield above the DataGrid, containing the grid's caption text.
  2. Duplicate the caption text and add it as the grid's accessible name. This can either be achieved by setting a value to the grid's "name" field in the Accessibility panel or by setting the grid's AccessibilityProperties.name property.

Examples

Example 1: Associating a label with a DataGrid

This is an example of a DataGrid being added to the stage in Flash Professional from the Components panel. A label element is also added from the Components panel to contain the caption text and the caption text is used in the Accessibility control panel in Flash to serve as the accessibility name for the DataGrid.

  • Create a new Flash file (.fla) or open an existing one to put a DataGrid into.
  • Open the Flash components panel from the Window menu
  • Drag a DataGrid component onto the stage and position as desired.
  • Drag a label component onto the stage and position as desired.
  • Add text to the label component.
  • Select the DataGrid component and add the same text as is used in the label component to the name field for DataGrid, using the Accessibility control panel.

Example 2: Associating a caption with a DataGrid using ActiveScript 3

This is a basic AS3 example of a DataGrid generated through scripting. Additionally a label element is created, containing the caption text, and the caption text is added to the grid as an accessible name. 

import fl.accessibility.DataGridAccImpl;
import fl.controls.DataGrid;
import fl.controls.Label;
import fl.data.DataProvider;
import flash.accessibility.Accessibility;
import flash.accessibility.AccessibilityProperties;
import flash.system.Capabilities;

// enable accessibility for the DataGrid
DataGridAccImpl.enableAccessibility();

createGrid();

// set the data grid caption text
var gridCaptionText: String = "Game Results";
gridCaption.text = gridCaptionText;
//add the caption text as the DataGrid's accessible name
var accProps: AccessibilityProperties = new AccessibilityProperties();
accProps.name = gridCaptionText;
aDg.accessibilityProperties = accProps;
if (Capabilities.hasAccessibility)
Accessibility.updateProperties();

function createGrid() {
  
  //create and add the components
  var aDg: DataGrid = new DataGrid();
  var gridCaption: Label = new Label();
  addChild(aDg);
  addChild(gridCaption);
  aDg.move(50, 50);
  gridCaption.move(50, 20);
  
  var captionFormat: TextFormat = new TextFormat();
  captionFormat.size = 24;
  gridCaption.setStyle("textFormat", captionFormat);
  gridCaption.width = 300;
  gridCaption.height = 100;
  bldRosterGrid(aDg);
  //prepare the data
  var aRoster: Array = new Array();
  aRoster =[ 
    {Name: "Wilma Carter", Bats: "R", Throws: "R", Year: "So", Home: "Redlands, CA"},
    {Name: "Sylvia Munson", Bats: "R", Throws: "R", Year: "Jr", Home: "Pasadena, CA"}, 
    {Name: "Carla Gomez", Bats: "R", Throws: "L", Year: "Sr", Home: "Corona, CA"}, 
    {Name: "Betty Kay", Bats: "R", Throws: "R", Year: "Fr", Home: "Palo Alto, CA"},
  ];
  aDg.dataProvider = new DataProvider(aRoster);
  aDg.rowCount = aDg.length;
};

function bldRosterGrid(dg: DataGrid) {
  dg.setSize(400, 300);
  dg.columns =[ "Name", "Bats", "Throws", "Year", "Home"];
  dg.columns[0].width = 120;
  dg.columns[1].width = 50;
  dg.columns[2].width = 50;
  dg.columns[3].width = 40;
  dg.columns[4].width = 120;
};

Notes on this code sample:

Tests

Procedure

  1. Check whether the Flash movie contains a DataGrid component.
  2. Confirm that each DataGrid's caption text has been added to the component as an accessible name.

Expected Results

Step 2 is true.

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