WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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RE: Movement in pages

for

From: philip steven lanier
Date: May 1, 2002 10:45AM

I would suggest that the degree to which purely decorative animation is
appropriate depends on the subtly of the animation. If, for instance, it
is a small, unobtrusive arrow that slowly fades in and out, that shouldn't
be a problem. If, however, it is a large banner across the top of the
page that dramatically flashes between black and yellow, forget it! I
agree with Mark Bryant that sticking to a set of guidelines is a good way
to go, but I would also add that understanding the reasons behind the
guidelines is more important than just blindly adhering to a set of
standards. There will alway be cases that are not clearly defined by the
guidelines: some cases in which the guidelines prescribe actions that are
not necessary in a certain situation for accessibility, and other where a
site may be inaccessible but still be in compliance with the guidelines.

That being said, Mark's first email describes fairly well the major
problems that movement on a page can cause. If that does not clarify
enough to make a judgement, I would suggest you look at the WCAG or EITAS
(or other general web accessiblity resources) and and read more on the
rationale behind the guidelines.

-Philip Lanier
University of Washington


On Wed, 1 May 2002, Frank Gaine wrote:

> mark,
>
> thanks for your reply. what do you think the situation would be with
> a purely decorative Flash-based element that moves but does not contain
> any essential information?
>
> Would the design have to omit this feature in order to comply with
> this WAI checkpoint (even if it were made accessible according to
> Macromedia's guidelines).
>
> Regards
> Frank Gaine
>
>
> At Wednesday, 1 May 2002, you wrote:
>
> >If you have some sort of scrolling text a user may need to freeze
> it so they
> >can read it. Those with cognitive disabilities may become overwhelmed
> and
> >not understand fast moving information. Flashing lights or flickering
> could
> >trigger a seizure for someone with a seizure disorder.
> >
> >-mark
> >
> >