Comments on: Can Flash become the best defense to a Visually Impaired Website Access Law? http://www.chuckstar.com/blog/technology/can-flash-become-the-best-defense-to-a-visually-impaired-website-access-law/ excerpts from the mind of a platform evangelist Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:24:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis http://www.chuckstar.com/blog/technology/can-flash-become-the-best-defense-to-a-visually-impaired-website-access-law/comment-page-1/#comment-24246 Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:40:32 +0000 http://www.chuckstar.com/blog/?p=111#comment-24246 Personally, I've never been sold on the advantages of Flash over the HTML/CSS/JS stack in terms of accessibility. At least in terms of text (re)presentation, the HTML/CSS/JS stack seems to provide end-users with visual impairments much greater built-in control. But that's just by-the-by: developers on all platforms and technologies need to be thinking about how to maximise the accessibility of their content and applications. While the pace of accessibility improvements to Flash does seem to have slowed since the Macromedia days, they never entirely stopped. A striking recent addition is that the most current Flash Player 9 Update beta gives the NSAPI-based plugin the ability to expose Flash content to the Microsoft Active Accessibility framework for use by assistive technologies on the Windows platform (the ActiveX plugin has long had that ability): http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer9/ There's a very good survey of the current state of Flash accessibility support at Niqui Merret's blog: http://niquimerret.com/?p=94 If you'd like to see examples of Flash that uses the Flash accessibility featureset, take a look at RNIB's case study of J K Rowling's homepage: http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/publicwebsite/public_jkrowling.hcsp The Adobe Accessibility blog is another good source of information on Flash and Flex accessibility: http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility/ W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 are being designed to provide generic, testable guidelines that apply to proprietary technologies like Flash just as much as to standards that are open to all implementors, so they're definitely worth a look: http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag20 Personally, I’ve never been sold on the advantages of Flash over the HTML/CSS/JS stack in terms of accessibility. At least in terms of text (re)presentation, the HTML/CSS/JS stack seems to provide end-users with visual impairments much greater built-in control. But that’s just by-the-by: developers on all platforms and technologies need to be thinking about how to maximise the accessibility of their content and applications.

While the pace of accessibility improvements to Flash does seem to have slowed since the Macromedia days, they never entirely stopped. A striking recent addition is that the most current Flash Player 9 Update beta gives the NSAPI-based plugin the ability to expose Flash content to the Microsoft Active Accessibility framework for use by assistive technologies on the Windows platform (the ActiveX plugin has long had that ability):

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer9/

There’s a very good survey of the current state of Flash accessibility support at Niqui Merret’s blog:

http://niquimerret.com/?p=94

If you’d like to see examples of Flash that uses the Flash accessibility featureset, take a look at RNIB’s case study of J K Rowling’s homepage:

http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/publicwebsite/public_jkrowling.hcsp

The Adobe Accessibility blog is another good source of information on Flash and Flex accessibility:

http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility/

W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 are being designed to provide generic, testable guidelines that apply to proprietary technologies like Flash just as much as to standards that are open to all implementors, so they’re definitely worth a look:

http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag20

]]> By: josh chernoff http://www.chuckstar.com/blog/technology/can-flash-become-the-best-defense-to-a-visually-impaired-website-access-law/comment-page-1/#comment-23026 josh chernoff Sun, 14 Oct 2007 14:46:12 +0000 http://www.chuckstar.com/blog/?p=111#comment-23026 I think I seen something about text to speech with flash some where on then net but I cant find it any more. When I do I'll forward a link I think I seen something about text to speech with flash some where on then net but I cant find it any more. When I do I’ll forward a link

]]> By: Ryan Stewart http://www.chuckstar.com/blog/technology/can-flash-become-the-best-defense-to-a-visually-impaired-website-access-law/comment-page-1/#comment-23012 Ryan Stewart Sun, 14 Oct 2007 07:58:01 +0000 http://www.chuckstar.com/blog/?p=111#comment-23012 Great post dude. I'm embarrassed to admit I don't know about a lot of the accessibility stuff in Flash. I sent an email around internally to find out if we've got anything new in Flash Player 9. The stuff I've seen for Flex all refers to it as "Macromedia" and talk about FP7. I'll blog if I hear anything. =Ryan rstewart@adobe.com Great post dude. I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t know about a lot of the accessibility stuff in Flash. I sent an email around internally to find out if we’ve got anything new in Flash Player 9. The stuff I’ve seen for Flex all refers to it as “Macromedia” and talk about FP7.

I’ll blog if I hear anything.

=Ryan
rstewart@adobe.com

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