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Thread: Flash accessibility?
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From: Roades, Adam
Date: Wed, Nov 07 2001 6:54AM
Subject: Flash accessibility?
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I am wondering if anyone has developed, seen, used, or heard of an
accessible program that was developed in Macromedia Flash. What I'm looking
for is a complete Flash interface that is accessible (versus an "eye-candy"
animated graphic).
We are working on a project that involves a CD-based multimedia presentation
and we plan to use Flash to program it. We've tinkered with their
"accessibility kit" and been much less than impressed so far. We're
currently experimenting with ideas to provide users with an option to turn
on an "audio descriptions" track that would read the screen contents and
instructions. And, of course, we'd provide captions for any spoken
narration. And we've used Flash's ability to keyboard navigate the entire
program. However, if anyone has ideas, scripting ideas, Flash tutorial
resources, or an actual file that we can piggy-back on, I would greatly
appreciate it. Thanks!
Sincerely,
Adam Roades
Instructional Designer, Anteon Corporation
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From: david_manzor@smartforce.com
Date: Thu, Nov 08 2001 1:57AM
Subject: Re: Flash accessibility?
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Hi,
At the moment Flash is completely inaccessible to screenreading technology.
Macromedia claim though, that the next major release of the Flash player
will make Flash textfields open to screenreaders. (I've no idea when they
plan this release).
Regards,
David Manzor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 7 Nov 2001 08:54:13 -0600
From: "Roades, Adam" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Subject: Flash accessibility?
I am wondering if anyone has developed, seen, used, or heard of an
accessible program that was developed in Macromedia Flash. What I'm
looking
for is a complete Flash interface that is accessible (versus an "eye-candy"
animated graphic).
We are working on a project that involves a CD-based multimedia
presentation
and we plan to use Flash to program it. We've tinkered with their
"accessibility kit" and been much less than impressed so far. We're
currently experimenting with ideas to provide users with an option to turn
on an "audio descriptions" track that would read the screen contents and
instructions. And, of course, we'd provide captions for any spoken
narration. And we've used Flash's ability to keyboard navigate the entire
program. However, if anyone has ideas, scripting ideas, Flash tutorial
resources, or an actual file that we can piggy-back on, I would greatly
appreciate it. Thanks!
Sincerely,
Adam Roades
Instructional Designer, Anteon Corporation
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From: Roades, Adam
Date: Fri, Nov 09 2001 12:28AM
Subject: Re: Flash accessibility?
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Thanks for your reply, David. Yes, we understand that Flash is completely
unreadable to assistive technology devices and software such as JAWS,
WindowEyes and HomePage Reader. That is why we are attempting to take
advantage of the inherent capabilities of Flash by designing and
incorporating features that essentially replicate all of the functions
performed by AT. For example, each time a sighted user rolls the mouse over
a menu item, he'll hear a sound effect. However, with the alternate sounds
enabled (an option we'll provide at the beginning of the course), someone
with a visual disability can use the Tab key to navigate to the same menu
item, and instead of hearing the sound effect, he will hear the menu item
read by a narrator. Since we are providing this course on CD, we
fortunately do not need to consider bandwidth limitations. Were we to move
this to the Web someday, we may need to rethink this strategy.
Thanks again and if you have any suggestions, resources or information that
can help us develop a better product, please don't hesitate to pass them
along! We, too, are anxiously awaiting the release of a truly accessible
version of Flash that will eliminate such "creative" strategies.
Adam Roades
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Date: 8 Nov 2001 03:58:04 -0600
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Subject: Flash accessibility?
Hi,
At the moment Flash is completely inaccessible to screenreading technology.
Macromedia claim though, that the next major release of the Flash player
will make Flash textfields open to screenreaders. (I've no idea when they
plan this release).
Regards,
David Manzor
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 7 Nov 2001 08:54:13 -0600
From: "Roades, Adam" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Subject: Flash accessibility?
I am wondering if anyone has developed, seen, used, or heard of an
accessible program that was developed in Macromedia Flash. What I'm
looking
for is a complete Flash interface that is accessible (versus an "eye-candy"
animated graphic).
We are working on a project that involves a CD-based multimedia
presentation
and we plan to use Flash to program it. We've tinkered with their
"accessibility kit" and been much less than impressed so far. We're
currently experimenting with ideas to provide users with an option to turn
on an "audio descriptions" track that would read the screen contents and
instructions. And, of course, we'd provide captions for any spoken
narration. And we've used Flash's ability to keyboard navigate the entire
program. However, if anyone has ideas, scripting ideas, Flash tutorial
resources, or an actual file that we can piggy-back on, I would greatly
appreciate it. Thanks!
Sincerely,
Adam Roades
Instructional Designer, Anteon Corporation
****************************************************************************
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It is intended for the named recipient(s) only.
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the
sender immediately and do not disclose the contents to any one or make
copies.
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From: Mark Magennis
Date: Sun, Nov 11 2001 3:22AM
Subject: Re: Flash accessibility?
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Adam Roades writes:
> we are attempting to take
> advantage of the inherent capabilities of Flash by designing and
> incorporating features that essentially replicate all of the functions
> performed by AT. For example, each time a sighted user rolls the
> mouse over
> a menu item, he'll hear a sound effect. However, with the
> alternate sounds
> enabled (an option we'll provide at the beginning of the course), someone
> with a visual disability can use the Tab key to navigate to the same menu
> item, and instead of hearing the sound effect, he will hear the menu item
> read by a narrator.
Are you sure this is possible Adam? I was under the impression that you
cannot tab between elements within the Flash because the "stage", which is
where the animation and interaction happens, cannot be made to respond to
the keyboard. I thought that the only things you could do with the keyboard
were jumping between scenes. Excuse my terminology, I'm not a Flash
developer so I'm assuming it uses something like scenes.
Another issue is that, even if you can tab to an item, exactly how is it
going to be read by a navigator? How do you know that this will mirror what
the users particular type, make and model of assistive technology would read
out for that item? Put in a more general sense, how do you replicate the
functions performed by assistive technology when all assistive technologies
behave differently and may have specific preferences set by individual
users?
I'm assuming that "AT" means Assistive Technology.
Mark
_______________________________________________________
Dr. Mark Magennis Head of Usability
Frontend - Usability Engineering & Interface Design
40 Westland Row, Dublin 2, Republic of Ireland
Visit our Usability Infocentre at:
www.frontend.com/usability_infocentre/
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = tel: +353 1 241 1616
http://www.frontend.com fax: +353 1 241 1601
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