Accessibility

Hi Bob,

Great presentation. I think it helps put some of the issues in perspective. I think that one of the problems with Flash accessibility is that the "Accessible code is good code in general" argument doesn't stick like it does in HTML. I often read that accessible HTML coding helps developers align their work according to recommended W3C standards, which isn't something one can say about Flash.

In Flash there has never been any clear methodology for creating site navigation for example and people have been doing what seems to work and make sense to them. That creates a reality where applying accessibility consideration may be perceived as a hassle which breaks working habits and conventions "with no good reason".

It is clear from your presentation, and with good reasons to, that accessibly in Flash content is more than just assigning text description to visual elements. The richness of the presentation may create an unwanted impression that supporting accessibility in Flash is a "big deal" and requires more than little nice text additions. I'm not saying that considering tab index, animations and alignment is a huge thing but it might appear a bit intimidating to some.

With 508 and other legislations I guess these people don't have much choice in some cases. I think that it will be a good thing to demonstrate how accessibility is an integral part of the development and design process by sharing stories of designers/developers who had worked on accessible project. Reading about how they managed to get the job done can offer valuable tips and insights. It will make the whole idea seem more reachable and tangible.

Also, perhaps MM should explore the use of components to support accessibility. Following my own experience with working on an accessibility component (http://www.amirdotan.com/pdf/comp_report.pdf) I'm thinking of perhaps another accessibility component which will make the task of making content accessible easier and more controllable. The component will parse an XML document, which lists the instances used in the movie and their text description, and assign the appropriate text to each instance in the movie when the movie starts.

Known issues such as introducing new content at runtime will have to be considered of course but what I'm saying is that there are ways to use the power of Flash to make accessibility related tasks easier just as we see in other realms of Flash development like working with Web services in MX 2004 etc.

Cheers,

Amir

I tried to use the tab, arrow, enter keys to view your presentation but could not - it would not allow me to move within each presentation. Is there a way of making your presentation accessible as well?
thanks

For a RIA developer, accessibility may be important, but it is only one a number of factors which place demands on their development process and software architecture. These days, a competitive RIA must not only be "user-friendly" (of course) and "look cool" (a given) but also meet a some less noticeable, but even more important criterion beyond the look-and-feel. It must be:

easily maintained
localizable (switch languages for international applications)
maximally flexible to design changes
sensitive to bandwidth considerations
adaptive to different user needs (e.g. pda apps)
produced on quick development schedule

Generally, methods exist to meet any one of these criterion by themselves, but taken in together, they constitute a daunting task which will make even experienced user interface developers long for the days of round-trip text-only html. Accessibility may be added to the list, but only with the tacit understanding that a small development team is going to have great difficulty meet all of these competing demands at once.

What is needed are structures and practices to make doing all these things easier for larger RIAs. For example, typing accessibility information into the properties box for every item on the stage is plainly inefficient and difficult to maintain, but setting up a centralized method with an xml file to resource the accessibility props can be a great deal of help. Using XML to resource UI strings and information is often great solution for these kinds of things, and given that a developer may already be resourcing text strings in order to meet criterion #2 (localization), it seems logical that they might want to store everything in the same file. Eventually they might appreciate a framework in which all of the relevant properties and strings of any UI element could be resourced, with classes and methods which would apply these properties appropriately. If well architected, this framework could help a developer meet several of the above requirements simultaneously without writing a huge amount of code.

Overall, I have found that flash MX gives me a great deal of low-level control in building an interface, and enough to meet section 508 compliance in most cases. The burden is certainly now upon the me as the developer to cope with these demands, since both the browser and the authoring environment can claim to be 'accessible.' What I need now are tools to help me integrate the demands of accessibility into my larger development process, and cope with the other requirements at the same time.

Dear Bob,

The presentation makes for a cool compilation and is supplemented with very useful examples and non-examples. We at Knowledge Platform have been watching your accessibility blogs very earnestly for the past several weeks now, and find it a very good source of practical, usable tips. Thanks a ton!

It was especially thrilling to see the workaround to make hit areas (we call them invisible buttons) accessible…and I do mean thrilling because we could hear our Flash designer, Waqas’s ear-splitting yell of ‘Yess!’ in the entire office, when he read your blog!

We are still grappling with the issue of balancing ‘richness’ of interaction with accessibility though. The drag-and-drop-based interactions are especially difficult to deal with. On one hand such interactions can make for powerful, composite instructional strategies but on the other, they don’t seem very accessible to the challenged user.

We are considering providing simpler alternatives for such interactions. Is there any way Flash can automatically detect the presence of any assistive technology on the client and dole out the corresponding alternative?

Hi Vasanta,

Take a look at:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/action_scripts/actionscript_dictionary/actionscript_dictionary707.html

And:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/action_scripts/actionscript_dictionary/actionscript_dictionary052.html

Hope this helps,

Amir

Looking forward to hearing the Brezo with audio.

The "Providing text equivalent-Dynamic navigation bar" xml has some reading issue. Check it. Have a nice "test"!

Can you let me know what issue you are having?

Cheers,
Bob

Thank you for the wonderful website and information I will be back soon, nice Site

Congratulations to your fantastic Site. Thanks

I want to develope a presentation on flas so please help me becasue I don't know about flash.
Your early response is highly appreciated.
Thanks & Regards
Farhan Khan

Bob, your presentation could well be just what I am looking for. Do you still have it? It doesn't seem to still be available from this weblog. Thanks for your help. Mark

Hi I cant see the presentation , can i know where can i see it, because i want to impliment accessibility in my project

Great Site.
Very important info for educational institutions. The link to the Breeze presentation seems to be outdated. Can I access it somewhere else?

Howdy,

Sure. Sorry about that. You can view this at:
http://macromedia.breezecentral.com/p91798059/

There is a new version coming out in the next couple of weeks for MAX.