Flash on the Beach 2008

August 27, 2008 – 6:09 pm

I was really happy that John and the Flash on the Beach team have invited me to speak again this year. I considered talking about a topic other than accessibility but feel that I still have not quite covered all areas. This year I have decided to do a techie focused talk and will go a little deeper than I have done in the past.

My session:

Accessibility - beyond the basics

There are some rather basic steps to take in order to make a simple Flash project accessible. Those are covered in detail across the net, in books and in a selection of presentations. But what if your project is a little beyond the norm? How do you ensure that your project can be accessed by as wide an audience as possible?

This session will look beyond the basics of accessibility. Covering a selection of key issues ranging from making Papervision3D content accessible to creating accessible custom components.

As there are often specific issues that developers have run into on projects, Niqui will accept submission of specific questions prior to the session and select one or two of the more common issues to discuss.

I would like to ask those who are interested in attending my session and have specific issues to please post them as a comment or email me. I will select a few of the more common questions and try to cover them in my session.

Is your Flash site accessible?

August 19, 2008 – 12:46 pm

Often I get asked for samples of accessible Flash sites. There are one or two well known Flash sites that are accessible like JK Rowling and the work of Thea Eaton from Snert Studios. There is also a list of fairly outdated links on Adobe’s site.

I am sure there are people out there who put in a lot of work to make their work accessible. If you have done so please leave a comment with a link to your accessible Flash site and feel free to give tips or comments on anything that was a little out of the ordinary.

Accessible Flash and Flex Applications at SXSW

August 8, 2008 – 6:10 pm

Well it will be at SXSW 2009 if you vote for it on the interactive panel picker.

Andrew Kirkpatrick asked me to join him on this panel. I have not spoken at SXSW before but I did really enjoy attending this year. I think it is a great topic and we should have some excellent panelists. If you do get a chance please register and vote for the session.

Session description:

Developers are increasingly interested in delivering accessible applications that use Flash-based technologies but are uncertain as to what is possible and how to develop and test their applications. This panel will look at best practices and examples, and share information on what’s new in Flash accessibility.

Clear SVN and other hidden files on the Mac

August 8, 2008 – 1:01 pm

Every now and then I have to get my hands dirty in the Terminal and delete hidden files. As its not something I have to do often I tend to forget the actual commands so this a reminder.

To view all hidden files:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

To hide the files:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder

To delete the .svn files:

Navigate to the folder. The easiest is to type “cd” and then to drop the folder into the Terminal window.

find ./ -name ".svn" | xargs rm -Rf

Documenting the undocumented!

August 5, 2008 – 2:18 pm

Just before my holiday Andrew Kirkpatrick from Adobe blogged about the new documentation that they have been working on. Draft Documentation for Flash Accessibility Implementation

I am really excited by these documents and hope that you can take a bit of time out to go through them.