Flash and Availability

Question

As a web developer, a number of the projects I'm working on fall under government umbrellas and are therefore governed by 508 accessibility laws, and sometimes W3C accessibility guidelines. To what extent can Flash be used to meet these requirements?

To use javascript, the mantra "Degrades gracefully", providing the same content and function only on different pages or less interactive / dynamic. This allows browsers / non-JavaScript users to continue to use the site, as well as allowing bot sites to access all content. Screen reader software users such as JAWS and Orca can also make full use of the site.

With flash, is there a similar way to gracefully fall back for users without flash? If not, how accessible is Flash-based content to search engines? And also, how do screen readers handle flash-based content?

Answer 1

I have poor eyesight to the extent that I use the zoom and TTS tools for convenience, but not as a necessity. I can tell you that Flash just doesn't work with most of the available accessibility tools. I believe that JAWS (the market leader in Windows, but not overwhelmingly dominant in any way) says that it supports Flash, but most Flash developers do not seem to include the work needed by JAWS to search for the text content of the Flash movie. And many visually impaired users do not even have a flash installed, because for 95% + time it is simply useless to them.

Another consideration is that the embedded text-to-speech provided by Mac OS X also cannot do anything with most flash movies.

IMO's "degrading" or offering a link to an HTML version of your content is probably the only practical way to make your site accessible. If you are starting from scratch, I would strongly consider JavaScript / JQuery over Flash, if at all possible.

Answer 2

I am a completely blind user of Jaws, and the short answer depends on that. For example, on YouTube, I can access the mute and play / pause buttons. However, things like sliders do not work. I don’t think Flash will determine how accessible your site will be if it is correctly encoded in much the same way as the content itself. For example, if you need to play a video, is there enough narration so that a blind person can watch the video? If you show graphs, is there a textual description of this data? I agree with the poster, which said that if possible, use JavaScript / JQuery, but for things like videos that require Flash, you can make it available in order to do things like turn off the video, stop the video etc.

Answer 3

A flash may be accessible for the visually impaired, but it takes some time and effort. This is not an automatic absence zone. It’s still important to check if different browsers play with the flash in the way Alxp notes.

There is another problem with the flash: it steals keyboard shortcuts. With part of the flash on the page, many standard keyboard control buttons stop functioning. These shortcuts are very important for people with mouse problems and people who prefer the keyboard for any other reason.

Answer 4

If you use Flash for things like navigation, I would ask you to use HTML and CSS on your bent knee. They degrade more elegantly, not only for people using site readers, but also for people who:

• Slow connections are used (for example, tethered phones).
• Turn off Flash.
• On a computer where Flash is not installed, and they do not have administrator rights.
• Their version of Flash is terribly outdated and they cannot / will not be updated.

However, if you are creating something like a game where Flash is vital, there are a few tips that I have for the hearing impaired:

• If you use bells or sounds in a game to indicate a game event, add an option to turn it into a visual bell.

An example of this is the Plants vs. Zombies game. I played with sound for several months (usually I had a game in the background). I did not understand that some zombies were declared sounds a few seconds before they appeared. It made the game harder for me.

• If you have sound instructions, place them also in the text. This also applies to the video! Text text is better than the text file next to the game / video, as it can be difficult to combine visual with audio.