Yesterday, the Web Accessibility in Mind organization, (WebAIM), a group focusing on improving accessibility of web content for persons with disabilities, published the results of their Screen Reader User Survey, a follow up to a similar survey conducted earlier this year.

VoiceOver was shown in the survey to have a fifty percent increase in users reporting its usage, only lagging slightly behind the Window-Eyes screen reader from GW Micro. A large percentage of users also stated that VoiceOver and other low or no cost solutions were viable alternatives to pricier third-party screen readers. Fortunately, it appears that the misconceptions about the Mac platform and the VoiceOver screen reader are becoming a thing of the past as users become better aware of their viability.

Unfortunately, however, the survey downplays the problems with accessibility of Adobe Flash content. A note included on the survey reads:

It must be noted that Flash content, like most other items listed here, can be made accessible. In fact, Flash content can have other general accessibility issues listed (e.g., ambiguous links, difficult forms, missing alt text, etc.). While treated here as a distinct item, it’s important to note that Flash is not inaccessible merely because it is present in a page, but because the Flash author has not implemented accessibility.

The above excerpt is only true for Flash content being accessed via Windows. Other operating systems, including Mac OS X, do not have any accessibility for Flash content, and to date, Adobe Systems has been unwilling to change this situation. If you haven’t already, please sign our petition to Adobe System to implement accessibility in Flash for the Mac OS X platform.

We have contacted WebAIM about the ambiguity in the above paragraph in the hopes that they will make changes to clarify that information.

Update — WebAIM has responded very quickly to our note, and has modified the Flash information to note that it is only applicable to the Windows OS. We applaud their quick response.