Making Flash content more accessible

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Making Flash contentmoreaccessible
NationalInformationLibraryService
Accessible Information Solutions

• Dr Sofia Celic

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Accessibility of web content

• Any interaction devicee.g. mouse, keyboard
• Any modee.g. visual graphical, visual linear,
  audio
• Any technologye.g. Flash, HTML, Java applet
• User drivene.g. pathway choice, continue, go back

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Accessibility of web content

• W3Cs Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
• v1 HTML centric
• ? v2 theoretically technology independent
• IBM Accessibility Checklists
• Web
• Java
• Sun Microsystems, Trace Centre

• Lotus Notes
• Software

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Accessibility of web content

• Principles
• text equivalents images, colour
• read/tab order linear access, keyboard
• adjustable presentation size, colour
• user control content progression, refresh
• clear content copy, orientation, navigation,
  markup
• device independence

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Flash movies

• Decorative/Animations
• Interactive

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Flash accessibility

• Very limited prior to version MX
• Version MX 2004 is better
• Flash Player 7 is better
• Considering accessibility when developing Flash
  movies can greatly improve access to the content.
• Use Flashs innate accessibility features.
• Avoid Flashs inaccessible features.
• Incorporating additional capabilities.

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Flash MX vs MX 2004

• MX

• MX 2004

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Flash MX vs MX 2004

• MX

• MX 2004

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Flash screen readers

• Checkboxes in accessibility panelcontrol access
  by screen readers.

Test everything!
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Flash screen readers

• Auto label assigns text in the object as its
  label by default.

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Flash screen readers
Test everything!
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Flash WebAIM example

• Animations
• screen readers start reading from the top with
  each content change
• also
• Dynamic changes
• Screen readers may miss the changed content.

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Flash screen readers

• The accessibility panel can be used to provide
  screen-reader friendly versions of the text where
  appropriate.
• Headings
• Lists
• Quotations
• Initialisms and abbreviations

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Flash screen readers

• Examples of providing context
• Text box with the heading Introduction
• Visual bullet list of three items - grouped

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Flash screen readers

• Example of providing an expansion for screen
  readers when the contraction might be confusing

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Flash screen readers

• Turn off accessibility of objects
• Decorative
• Repetitive
• Provide name/description
• Default text is insufficient
• Provide context information
• Description of the sum is more useful than
  individual components

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Flash reading/tab order

• Tab Weight 2y (x/3)where x and y are the
  coordinates of the object.

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Flash reading/tab order

• Assign reading order to ALL objects that are
  accessibleviaTab Index

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Flash - keyboard use

• Test all Flash Components for keyboard access.
• Version MX
• Some okay
• Some not
• Some okay with help
• Example Scroll bar default Scroll bar
  ActionScript

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Flash - keyboard use

• For typical mouse-dependent functions
• Explore ActionScript!
• to create keyboard accessible versions
• Example Drag-and-drop

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Flash adjust size/colour

• Size only Zoom capability
• Build preferences component - text size,
  foreground background colours
• Use external CSS (MX 2004)

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Flash adjust size/colour

• Zoom
• Right-click menu enabled
• Keyboard control required
• ActionScript
• Javascript

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Flash zooming
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Flash zooming

• Keyboard - Flash player control
• ActionScript or HTML
• Javascript
• Play()
• StopPlay()
• Rewind()
• Zoom(int percent)
• Pan(int x, int y, int mode)

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Example webreference.com
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Flash adjust size/colour

• Preferences (text size, fg bg colours)
• movie object/ActionScript
• cookie

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Flash adjust size/colour

• Use external CSS
• text-align
• font-size
• text-decoration
• font-weight
• font-style
• font-family

• margin-left
• margin-right
• text-indent
• color
• display

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Example Kirupa.com
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Example Kirupa.com

• HTML format text content
• ActionScript

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Flash in web pages

• Keyboard issue with Player 6 and earlier.
• Decorative only
• In object element,include parameter setting
  wmodeset value to transparent
• Interactive
• Test for Flash Player version 7.If not present,
  prompt for download or continue anyway,
  explaining possible issues.

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References

• WebAIM www.webaim.org
• Macromedia www.macromedia.com
• Kirupa www.kirupa.com
• A List Apart www.alistapart.com
• Strategies for building accessible learning web
  applications and games with Macromedia Flash MX
  www.csun.edu/cod/conf/2005/proceedings/2330.htm