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Thread: Flash animation and accessibility on a particular web page.

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Number of posts in this thread: 5 (In chronological order)

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Mon, Nov 05 2012 8:23AM
Subject: Flash animation and accessibility on a particular web page.
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Hi everyone

I will never turn this into some sort of personal service request
list, no worries, but I am faced with a particularly urgent problem,
one that reflects the wider concern for Flash, animation and
accessibility, a popular topic though not mentioned lately on this
list, as far as I remember.
The website
www.ruv.is
(the website of the Icelandic National Public Radio), seems to have
just putting started a lot of Flash objects, pictures and ads on their
page. At least my screen reading software loses focus all the time,
jumps around, and I have gotten a deluge of complaints from our blind
and VI users (this plays havoc with screen magnifiers as well), that
the page has suddenly become completely inaccessible (funny since I
have done a lot of work with them on ARIA accessibility, labelling
buttons etc .. goes to show our work can be frustrating as well as
fun.
Just out of professional curiosity, could anyone check over the page
for me to confirm that Flash is the issue, and if you have pointers to
the latest Flash accessibility guides, could you please post. I point
people to a very good WebAIM guide, though a few years old, that
discusses how Flash is more accessible if it is set to Transparent,
and it will subsequently be ignored by screen readers/magnifiers.
Are there any updates to this, and are there ways to keep these Flash
objects on the page for sighted users (well, for who I do not know,
since these are not exactly popular with anyone), without messing up
accessibility for visually impaired users? Or is the only snesible
suggestion I can make to take these out altogether, at least the
animation part? How would you handle this folks. Always a pleasure to
follow discussions on this list and to be able to occasionally tap
into the wealth of expertese here is simply an honor.

Cheers
-Birkir

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Mon, Nov 05 2012 9:13AM
Subject: Re: Flash animation and accessibility on a particular web page.
← Previous message | Next message →

Sorry guys. The pressure and ill-informed complaints I received caused
me to act too soon. The problem is not Flash per se, in fact it
appears to be Javascript Carusels (two of them), on the front page,
that rotate headlines. This is something that we worked on in the
spring, but somehow got lost in software updates at that organization.
I believe there is plenty of literature on accessible carusels around,
Hans Hillon had a great one, Bryan as well I believe, but if anyone
has further suggestions, feel free to point out how best to hide these
from assistive technologies (most like using ARIA).
Thanks and sorry for a hastily written post, should not have gone out
to the list until I had a closer look.
-B

On 11/5/12, Birkir R. Gunnarsson < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Hi everyone
>
> I will never turn this into some sort of personal service request
> list, no worries, but I am faced with a particularly urgent problem,
> one that reflects the wider concern for Flash, animation and
> accessibility, a popular topic though not mentioned lately on this
> list, as far as I remember.
> The website
> www.ruv.is
> (the website of the Icelandic National Public Radio), seems to have
> just putting started a lot of Flash objects, pictures and ads on their
> page. At least my screen reading software loses focus all the time,
> jumps around, and I have gotten a deluge of complaints from our blind
> and VI users (this plays havoc with screen magnifiers as well), that
> the page has suddenly become completely inaccessible (funny since I
> have done a lot of work with them on ARIA accessibility, labelling
> buttons etc .. goes to show our work can be frustrating as well as
> fun.
> Just out of professional curiosity, could anyone check over the page
> for me to confirm that Flash is the issue, and if you have pointers to
> the latest Flash accessibility guides, could you please post. I point
> people to a very good WebAIM guide, though a few years old, that
> discusses how Flash is more accessible if it is set to Transparent,
> and it will subsequently be ignored by screen readers/magnifiers.
> Are there any updates to this, and are there ways to keep these Flash
> objects on the page for sighted users (well, for who I do not know,
> since these are not exactly popular with anyone), without messing up
> accessibility for visually impaired users? Or is the only snesible
> suggestion I can make to take these out altogether, at least the
> animation part? How would you handle this folks. Always a pleasure to
> follow discussions on this list and to be able to occasionally tap
> into the wealth of expertese here is simply an honor.
>
> Cheers
> -Birkir
>

From: Bryan Garaventa
Date: Mon, Nov 05 2012 1:14PM
Subject: Re: Flash animation and accessibility on a particular webpage.
← Previous message | Next message →

Is the purpose to hide it entirely?

If so, and they are just images with no value, and if there are no active
elements, you could put aria-hidden="true" on the container to hide it from
screen readers. This may solve the refresh issue, but it would need to be
tested to be certain.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Birkir R. Gunnarsson" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2012 8:13 AM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Flash animation and accessibility on a particular
webpage.


> Sorry guys. The pressure and ill-informed complaints I received caused
> me to act too soon. The problem is not Flash per se, in fact it
> appears to be Javascript Carusels (two of them), on the front page,
> that rotate headlines. This is something that we worked on in the
> spring, but somehow got lost in software updates at that organization.
> I believe there is plenty of literature on accessible carusels around,
> Hans Hillon had a great one, Bryan as well I believe, but if anyone
> has further suggestions, feel free to point out how best to hide these
> from assistive technologies (most like using ARIA).
> Thanks and sorry for a hastily written post, should not have gone out
> to the list until I had a closer look.
> -B
>
> On 11/5/12, Birkir R. Gunnarsson < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>> Hi everyone
>>
>> I will never turn this into some sort of personal service request
>> list, no worries, but I am faced with a particularly urgent problem,
>> one that reflects the wider concern for Flash, animation and
>> accessibility, a popular topic though not mentioned lately on this
>> list, as far as I remember.
>> The website
>> www.ruv.is
>> (the website of the Icelandic National Public Radio), seems to have
>> just putting started a lot of Flash objects, pictures and ads on their
>> page. At least my screen reading software loses focus all the time,
>> jumps around, and I have gotten a deluge of complaints from our blind
>> and VI users (this plays havoc with screen magnifiers as well), that
>> the page has suddenly become completely inaccessible (funny since I
>> have done a lot of work with them on ARIA accessibility, labelling
>> buttons etc .. goes to show our work can be frustrating as well as
>> fun.
>> Just out of professional curiosity, could anyone check over the page
>> for me to confirm that Flash is the issue, and if you have pointers to
>> the latest Flash accessibility guides, could you please post. I point
>> people to a very good WebAIM guide, though a few years old, that
>> discusses how Flash is more accessible if it is set to Transparent,
>> and it will subsequently be ignored by screen readers/magnifiers.
>> Are there any updates to this, and are there ways to keep these Flash
>> objects on the page for sighted users (well, for who I do not know,
>> since these are not exactly popular with anyone), without messing up
>> accessibility for visually impaired users? Or is the only snesible
>> suggestion I can make to take these out altogether, at least the
>> animation part? How would you handle this folks. Always a pleasure to
>> follow discussions on this list and to be able to occasionally tap
>> into the wealth of expertese here is simply an honor.
>>
>> Cheers
>> -Birkir
>>
> > >

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Mon, Nov 05 2012 3:21PM
Subject: Re: Flash animation and accessibility on a particular webpage.
← Previous message | Next message →

Does anyone know how (or if) aria-hidden works with screen magnifiers?


On 11/5/12, Bryan Garaventa < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Is the purpose to hide it entirely?
>
> If so, and they are just images with no value, and if there are no active
> elements, you could put aria-hidden="true" on the container to hide it from
>
> screen readers. This may solve the refresh issue, but it would need to be
> tested to be certain.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Birkir R. Gunnarsson" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> Sent: Monday, November 05, 2012 8:13 AM
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Flash animation and accessibility on a particular
> webpage.
>
>
>> Sorry guys. The pressure and ill-informed complaints I received caused
>> me to act too soon. The problem is not Flash per se, in fact it
>> appears to be Javascript Carusels (two of them), on the front page,
>> that rotate headlines. This is something that we worked on in the
>> spring, but somehow got lost in software updates at that organization.
>> I believe there is plenty of literature on accessible carusels around,
>> Hans Hillon had a great one, Bryan as well I believe, but if anyone
>> has further suggestions, feel free to point out how best to hide these
>> from assistive technologies (most like using ARIA).
>> Thanks and sorry for a hastily written post, should not have gone out
>> to the list until I had a closer look.
>> -B
>>
>> On 11/5/12, Birkir R. Gunnarsson < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>>> Hi everyone
>>>
>>> I will never turn this into some sort of personal service request
>>> list, no worries, but I am faced with a particularly urgent problem,
>>> one that reflects the wider concern for Flash, animation and
>>> accessibility, a popular topic though not mentioned lately on this
>>> list, as far as I remember.
>>> The website
>>> www.ruv.is
>>> (the website of the Icelandic National Public Radio), seems to have
>>> just putting started a lot of Flash objects, pictures and ads on their
>>> page. At least my screen reading software loses focus all the time,
>>> jumps around, and I have gotten a deluge of complaints from our blind
>>> and VI users (this plays havoc with screen magnifiers as well), that
>>> the page has suddenly become completely inaccessible (funny since I
>>> have done a lot of work with them on ARIA accessibility, labelling
>>> buttons etc .. goes to show our work can be frustrating as well as
>>> fun.
>>> Just out of professional curiosity, could anyone check over the page
>>> for me to confirm that Flash is the issue, and if you have pointers to
>>> the latest Flash accessibility guides, could you please post. I point
>>> people to a very good WebAIM guide, though a few years old, that
>>> discusses how Flash is more accessible if it is set to Transparent,
>>> and it will subsequently be ignored by screen readers/magnifiers.
>>> Are there any updates to this, and are there ways to keep these Flash
>>> objects on the page for sighted users (well, for who I do not know,
>>> since these are not exactly popular with anyone), without messing up
>>> accessibility for visually impaired users? Or is the only snesible
>>> suggestion I can make to take these out altogether, at least the
>>> animation part? How would you handle this folks. Always a pleasure to
>>> follow discussions on this list and to be able to occasionally tap
>>> into the wealth of expertese here is simply an honor.
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>> -Birkir
>>>
>> >> >> >
> > > >

From: Bryan Garaventa
Date: Mon, Nov 05 2012 6:43PM
Subject: Re: Flash animation and accessibility on a particularwebpage.
← Previous message | No next message

I don't think it does.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Birkir R. Gunnarsson" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2012 2:21 PM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Flash animation and accessibility on a
particularwebpage.


> Does anyone know how (or if) aria-hidden works with screen magnifiers?
>
>
> On 11/5/12, Bryan Garaventa < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>> Is the purpose to hide it entirely?
>>
>> If so, and they are just images with no value, and if there are no active
>> elements, you could put aria-hidden="true" on the container to hide it
>> from
>>
>> screen readers. This may solve the refresh issue, but it would need to be
>> tested to be certain.
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Birkir R. Gunnarsson" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
>> To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
>> Sent: Monday, November 05, 2012 8:13 AM
>> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Flash animation and accessibility on a particular
>> webpage.
>>
>>
>>> Sorry guys. The pressure and ill-informed complaints I received caused
>>> me to act too soon. The problem is not Flash per se, in fact it
>>> appears to be Javascript Carusels (two of them), on the front page,
>>> that rotate headlines. This is something that we worked on in the
>>> spring, but somehow got lost in software updates at that organization.
>>> I believe there is plenty of literature on accessible carusels around,
>>> Hans Hillon had a great one, Bryan as well I believe, but if anyone
>>> has further suggestions, feel free to point out how best to hide these
>>> from assistive technologies (most like using ARIA).
>>> Thanks and sorry for a hastily written post, should not have gone out
>>> to the list until I had a closer look.
>>> -B
>>>
>>> On 11/5/12, Birkir R. Gunnarsson < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>>>> Hi everyone
>>>>
>>>> I will never turn this into some sort of personal service request
>>>> list, no worries, but I am faced with a particularly urgent problem,
>>>> one that reflects the wider concern for Flash, animation and
>>>> accessibility, a popular topic though not mentioned lately on this
>>>> list, as far as I remember.
>>>> The website
>>>> www.ruv.is
>>>> (the website of the Icelandic National Public Radio), seems to have
>>>> just putting started a lot of Flash objects, pictures and ads on their
>>>> page. At least my screen reading software loses focus all the time,
>>>> jumps around, and I have gotten a deluge of complaints from our blind
>>>> and VI users (this plays havoc with screen magnifiers as well), that
>>>> the page has suddenly become completely inaccessible (funny since I
>>>> have done a lot of work with them on ARIA accessibility, labelling
>>>> buttons etc .. goes to show our work can be frustrating as well as
>>>> fun.
>>>> Just out of professional curiosity, could anyone check over the page
>>>> for me to confirm that Flash is the issue, and if you have pointers to
>>>> the latest Flash accessibility guides, could you please post. I point
>>>> people to a very good WebAIM guide, though a few years old, that
>>>> discusses how Flash is more accessible if it is set to Transparent,
>>>> and it will subsequently be ignored by screen readers/magnifiers.
>>>> Are there any updates to this, and are there ways to keep these Flash
>>>> objects on the page for sighted users (well, for who I do not know,
>>>> since these are not exactly popular with anyone), without messing up
>>>> accessibility for visually impaired users? Or is the only snesible
>>>> suggestion I can make to take these out altogether, at least the
>>>> animation part? How would you handle this folks. Always a pleasure to
>>>> follow discussions on this list and to be able to occasionally tap
>>>> into the wealth of expertese here is simply an honor.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers
>>>> -Birkir
>>>>
>>> >>> >>> >>
>> >> >> >>
> > >