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RE: JKRowling.com pushes boundaries of Flash

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From: Rainer Wagener
Date: Jul 21, 2005 11:05AM

Hi,

Henny Swan wrote:

> LightMaker, a web design agency in the UK, have relaunched
> www.jkrowling.com, a Flash based website, with
> accessibility features in
> it. These include improved tabbing, names for objects, a
> sound glossary
> and captioning for the deaf. I'd be interested to hear
> any feedback or
> comments from any Harry Potter fans out there!

Well, I don't know if I'm a Harry Potter fan. May be kind of. But
I'm definitely not a fan of this site.
I tried to access the site via modem and after several minutes of
popup blocking and some strange howling of winds or dogs or whatever
not showing up any kind of meaningful or just clickable content I
gave it up. I moved to where people know that websites are build
with (X)HTML.
Solid (X)HTML is pretty much accessible in itself. Talking about
accessibility using Flash based websites is like locking the front
door to your house, throwing away the key and then trying to enter
through the bathroom window. Those small windows can be real
accessibility features. But ain't it stupid to drop the key in the
first place?
Flash is a movie. A Website is not. You can have a movie on your
website but a Flash based website is simply a misconception.

Regards Rainer

--

Rainer Wagener

Webentwicklungen
Blumenstr. 57
69115 Heidelberg
Tel.: 062 21 - 60 05 81

www.rohschnitt.de