In Accessibility ,Browsers ,FOTB06 ,Flash ,Flash on the Beach / Tags: /
Christian Heilmann has posted the questions and answers that were the basis of the German Podcast that he translated for us. They had given both Aral and I a set of questions to answer on accessibility and Flash not so long ago. After meeting and chatting to Geoff Sterns at Flash on the Beach I would like to add to the answer of the last question –
18) What is your wishlist for web 3.0? Is Flash going to be a major player in the future?
I would like to insert Flash into a page so that it works without any backflips or cartwheels. I don’t want to have to include in external js libraries. I don’t want to have to think “is the script I use gonna fit into the Web Standards philosophy” or “Is the script gonna break Jaws” or “what happens if the user has the Flash plug-in and JavaScript disabled”. We may know and think about these issues but there are still many developers who do not. They don’t follow too much about what is going in terms of Web Standards, don’t know and understand accessibility, trust things to work and sometimes even blame themselves when things don’t work. Those are the people who really need the Web Standards on their side. Not only do they need to get more clear guidelines on how to insert SWFs into a page but they need the browser plug-in handling to be less broken.
Geoff posted a request earlier this year – Where is the Browser plug-in task force.
In the comments Geoff gave a few suggestions to start this process:
For the browser makers:
- Fix how your browser handles the object tag.For the plug-in makers:
- Make sure your plug-in works with the object tag. I know this is largely dependant on how the browser handles the object tag, but we have to start somewhere.For the public:
- Educate people on proper plug-in usage, try to wean them off the embed tag – but to do this, first we need solid object tag support in the browsers.
So that is my wish for next year and I don’t think we should wait till Web 3.0.
[UPDATE] I should have added in a link to Bobby van der Sluis comments on When plug-ins bite web standards (and vice versa). He has some very valid points and its well worth a read.
2 ResponsesLeave a comment ?
Do you know of any shortcomings with the swfobject.js script that is pretty ubiquitous?
Also, and this is a serious question, are there any good reasons why someone would want to disable JavaScript? It is simply that they are paranoid about websites snooping on their privacy or does it muck about with accessibility helpers like screenreaders?
Hi Ed
Hope you had a good silly seasons. Sorry for the delay in replying.
I am not aware of any real issues with SWFObject.
With regards to JavaScript I believe turning it off can happen in large companies for security issues. I was reading about how JavaScript opens doors to browser-based attacks and another article on the Guardian’s Technology Blog. This is the kind of story that could scare large companies into turning off JavaScript. Some large companies even block sites based on content type.
Having JavaScript turned off can muck up allot more than just effect screen-reader users. It will cause many Flash sites to not load as the checks are javaScript and most of the Web 2.0 sites that are not built using progressive enhancement.