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Thread: Flash replacement - testing needed
Number of posts in this thread: 3 (In chronological order)
From: Stephanie Sullivan
Date: Sat, Nov 20 2004 10:58AM
Subject: Flash replacement - testing needed
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Hi guys... I have been experimenting with a technique called sIFR that uses
a dynamic Flash alphabet to replace headings on a web page. It only works if
JS and Flash 6 or higher are installed... Otherwise, the browser renders CSS
styled text.
I was under the impression that this is accessible and I know it's indexable
by Search Engines.... However, accessibility was questioned yesterday and I
would REALLY like to know the answer once and for all (I'm getting two
different reports. LOL)
If anyone has JAWS, could you test this page please?
http://mikeindustries.com/blog/files/sifr/2.0/
Window Eyes are anything else would be great too... Thanks!
Stephanie Sullivan
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-- Helen Keller
From: Terence de Giere
Date: Sun, Nov 21 2004 8:48AM
Subject: Re: Flash replacement - testing needed
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= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = wrote:
Hi guys... I have been experimenting with a technique called sIFR
that uses a dynamic Flash alphabet to replace headings on a web
page..... However, accessibility was questioned yesterday and I
would REALLY like to know the answer once and for all (I'm getting
two different reports. LOL)
http://mikeindustries.com/blog/files/sifr/2.0/
Stephanie Sullivan
--------------
Stephanie--
No screen readers at the moment, however--
Worked fine in a text-only browser. I have preference bar installed with
Mozilla with a "Flash Killer" button. When that was activated the flash
text vanished but was not replaced, that is, the headings went blank.
With the Opera browser with Flash turned off and JavaScript on, I got a
JavaScript error message, but I have the browser to always show errors.
With Flash on but script off and with script on but Flash off the CSS
styled text displayed. With some tool bars that can turn off CSS (in
Opera and Internet Explorer), both the Flash text and the XHTML text
displayed if CSS was disabled or a user style sheet was employed and
Flash and scripting were on. I don't think you should be concerned about
this because very few browsers will be configured with these add-on tools.
Visually the center column seems to be the lead article, but linearized
as text the left column and then the right column, and finally the
center column is rendered. If possible the code order should reflect the
priorities of the story importance. As a result of the order you have an
h3 heading following an h1 heading rather than an h2. The article at
the end of the code starts with an h2 heading, and h1 to h3 gap should
trigger an error with testing software that checks for W3C Priority 2
accessibility problems. Add character encoding to the page as the W3C
validator needs that information to properly check XHTML, which
otherwise seemed OK.
If the screen reader users do not have problems and these other things
are fixed, this looks like a good solution. I doubt many users are using
a Flash Killer as there is no work-around for this - modem users are
likely to bail out of a page which downloads too slowly. I use it if the
download is slow, so I can see if there is anything on the page besides
flash I might want to look at. In the U.S. about half of home users are
still on dial-up modems and large Flash downloads can be a problem.
About 8% use 28.8K modems, so the amount of Flash that is tolerable may
depend on the target audience, that is, business or home. On my somewhat
slow computer, the page (with Flash) takes about 4 seconds to load on
DSL in various browsers, which means modem use will be over the 8-10
second download recommended by ergonomists. The non-Flash download time
is fine. The ideal time for broadband download is about 1-2 seconds
(based on recommendations by Dr. Jakob Nielsen (Nielsen Norman Group)
and Dr. Eric Schaffer (Human Factors, Inc.).
Terence de Giere
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
From: Terrence Wood
Date: Sun, Nov 21 2004 1:37PM
Subject: Re: Flash replacement - testing needed
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I think the only other drawbacks of this method additional to those
mentioned by Terence (not including the source order and heading issues
which are design issues, not sIFR issues) are:
1. The flash text will not resize if the text is resized after loading
the page -- however, reloading the page will resize it.
2. Selecting text doesn't provide the visual feedback you expect when
selecting text -- it is entirely uncertain what text is selected until
it is pasted elsewhere. This is the biggest issue with this method IMHO.
Terrence Wood.
On 2004-11-22 4:44 AM, terence wrote:
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = wrote:
>
> Hi guys... I have been experimenting with a technique called sIFR
>
> No screen readers at the moment, however--
>
> Worked fine in a text-only browser. I have preference bar installed with
> Mozilla with a "Flash Killer" button. When that was activated the flash
> text vanished but was not replaced, that is, the headings went blank.
[snip]
> both the Flash text and the XHTML text
> displayed if CSS was disabled or a user style sheet was employed and
> Flash and scripting were on.
[snip]
> If the screen reader users do not have problems and these other things
> are fixed, this looks like a good solution. I doubt many users are using
> a Flash Killer as there is no work-around for this - modem users are
> likely to bail out of a page which downloads too slowly. I use it if the
> download is slow, so I can see if there is anything on the page besides
> flash I might want to look at.
--
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