In Accessibility ,Flash ,Flex ,screen readers / Tags: /
It is a very common misconception that if you have a HTML version of a Flash site, accessibility is covered. I have seen companies (proudly) sell this to clients as the answer to complying with accessibility requirements. While this is great for Universal Access and will certainly allow more users to view the content, this will not make a Flash site more accessible to disabled users.
This technique is referred to as Progressive Enhancement although you may have heard it as graceful degradation. Bobby van der Sluis explains Progressive Enhancement in a great article on Adobe Devnet.
Progressive Enhancement is a web development strategy that ensures that even a visitor with the lowest common denominator web browser technology can navigate through a website and read its content.
I am a strong supporter of Progressive Enhancement and will utilise for every project possible. It is however important to understand that it deals purely with issues relating to required and supported technology. It does not actually deal with users and abilities.
If a user has both JavaScript and the latest version of FLash on their computer they will experience the Flash version regardless of ability or Assistive Technology. The result of this is that there are many users who are experiencing broken sites and content.
The Flash movie is displayed exactly as it does for every other user who has both Flash and Javascript turned on. The problem is that the screen reader user, keyboard user or any other disabled user will be faced with an inaccessible Flash site. No matter how good your HTML site is – the user will NEVER get to see it.
It is essential to understand that if you are developing Flash content you will need to think of disabled users and how they will interact with your site.
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Hi Niqui,
I agree totally with what you say above, and flash only sites has been something I have steered away from even at the expense of loosing clients. However I have a recent client who wanted large parts of his site in flash, it was nothing that could not be done in html and CSS, it just looked better and was more well flashy in the way he wanted to present it. However I managed to talk him into allowing me to quote to also provide an alternative HTML version like you have mentioned above.Both versions had the same content and information, the flash areas utilised flash to make it more er flashy. BUT I also talked him into making the HTML site the main all singing all dancing site which everyone enters. With this the alternate content was the actual flash, the ‘normal’ site was just html. When a user reached a page/section, there would be a prominent link (if appropriate) that explained that part of the site was available in a flash experience should people want to view it.We also decided to put all the flash into a sub-folder with a robots.txt no follow so none of the flash would be available in the SERPS, then all search traffic should land upon a HTML page. Sadly the site never got past the initial concept and design stages, the client suffered some personal trauma and the project is on hold, so nothing to show.
So what do you think of that as an alternative way to handle flash, have the flash as the optional part, those who want/can get the flash experience have the option to get it.
Hi Paul
Thanks for your comment.
I would just like to clear up that I am in no way against Flash only sites and I also think that having an HTML alternative is very important. I do not believe that we should sacrifice great user experiences and creativity for static HTML. I think that both UFO and SWFObject are great tool and am looking forward to SWFFIX.
The point I was trying to make is that Flash developers should try to ensure that their sites and applications work for disabled users. That means adding in the accessibility information in Flash and checking the tab and reading order are clear and work. Also design considerations need to be taken into account for the different users – colour, contrast, size etc.
Hi,
Interesting post. I used to be a flash fanatic until I became aware of its poor support for bi-directional languages and accessibility in general. I keep away from it unless I really have to and would almost always prefer a well structured HTML/CSS site than a Flash one, unless of course rich media is involved or some web based application.
I put the blame on Macromedia and now Adobe for not raising awareness and helping developers understand how they can create accessible Flash content. Personally I don’t believe Flash comes close to HTML in terms of accessibility. Neither Macromedia nor Adobe as far as I’m aware of, ever introduced an accessibility forum. There was a company blog though which was quite empty to say the least. I ran a quick search on google and came up with the following results:
“flash accessibility forum” 2 results
“flash accessibility message board” 0 results
“flash accessibility blog” 13 results
“accessible flash forum” 0 results
I was not surprised at all. The examples you can find online to create accessible flash are extremely basic e.g. add descriptive text to a movie clip. They fail to address the needs and characteristics of real life projects, hence I consider them quite useless. Accessibility is not a ‘sexy’ topic as usability is slowly becoming and it seems that even Adobe knows that there’s not much they can do about Flash in terms of accessibility other than show how to assign text to an object.
Obviously Macromedia at the time added that little accessibility panel so that Flash content could pass section 508 requirements, but of course as we know passing a checklist doesn’t necessarily make your site usable. Furthermore, correct me if I’m wrong please, but I never came across an accessibility validation tool for flash, so how can a flash developer even know that the movie is accessible in the first place?
You have brought up interesting points and many people share your thoughts. I think that the level of accessibility in Flash is often misunderstood. You can do quite a bit with that little accessibility panel and it has a far greater impact than you think it does. While I agree that Adobe should be doing more to promote accessibility I also don’t think it is fair to lay blame on them. Adobe provides some very good resources on their site and it may take a bit of time to go through them but they really do provide the information that you need to make Flash accessible.
Who shares the responsibility for the number of non-accessible Flash sites on the web:
Your search it is not entirely a fair one. Some other examples of unfair searches:
“HTML accessibility forum” 1 result
“HTML accessibility message board” 0 results
“HTML accessibility blog” 1 result
“accessible HTML forum” 0 results
The search:
“flash accessibility” 38,900 results
What you also need to understand is that often these forums/blogs/resource sites are run by the community. The small number (and I do agree that there are too few) can be blamed on the community not focusing on creating accessible Flash sites and applications. All of this requires awareness. You can talk but if no one is listening then what do you do?
There are probably more inaccessible HTML sites than accessible ones. It takes time to teach people the correct way to do things and the good news is that it is getting better and better all the time.
I am under no illusions that Flash is perfect but neither is HTML/CSS/AJAX etc. We need to work together to create a more accessible net. We need to create awareness that Flash can be accessible and start to get more people thinking about creating accessible Flash content.
I hope that you are one step closer to believing that Flash can be more accessible. I have a sample that I am working on to demonstrate Flash’s accessibility – niquimerret.com/memoriaduo. If you can tell me what in the movie is not accessible I am very interested in hearing feedback. I would of course expect this to be backed-up by real user issues.
Hi,
Thanks for the detailed reply.
1. Seeing as how Adobe got Flash as is from Macromedia I blame Macromedia far more than I blame Adobe. I am well aware of Adobe’s commitment to accessibility and can only hope the company continues to explore ways to make Flash content even more accessible.
2. No results match your search for “flash accessibility” in Amazon.co.uk.
This is the point I was trying to make. I didn’t go through all of those 40,000 search results for ‘flash accessibility’ but how many of those you think are people asking how to make accessible flash content work for real sites and not just basic examples?
I bet quite a few.
There are 211 books on Flash on Amazon yet not even one which is dedicated to Accessibility? I’m sure there might be a chapter here and there, but I would argue that the issue is complex and tricky enough to justify a dedicated book. If only just from a pure publicity/marketing point of view.
I’m not suggesting Flash isn’t accessible, nor am I suggesting that HTML/CSS is accessibility heaven. Far from it. I am arguing that Macromedia had done the basic minimum at best to ensure Flash content is accessible. As I recall, and I may be wrong here, the only reason they even considered it in the first place was so that US based developers won’t stop using it as they aim to meet section 508′s accessibility requirements. I wouldn’t really call that ‘commitment to accessibility’. I would expect for example to see an accessibility section featured in the Flash showcase http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/showcase/index.cfm?event=finder&productid=1527&loc=en_us Just to show people that it does work for real projects.
I agree with all the points you’ve listed and share those sentiments 100%. Personally, I doubt if screenreaders are even capable of handling an application as opposed to a linear HTML file.
PS
I would like to apologize if my comments came across as being somewhat ‘over-emotional’.In terms of accessibility, I pretty much fell out with Flash around the time I launched the following online petition with two friends, urging Macromedia to offer proper bi-directional support so that Flash content could be used by Arabic and Hebrew speaking users and developers. I always considered that to be a fundamental accessibility issue – ensuring global access and use.
http://www.amirdotan.com/the-right-to-flash/
Since then the topic has been quite a sensitive issue to say the least
By the way, I hope to make it on Thursday and look forward to hearing your presentation.
Just a quick comment on Flash sites:
I have flash installed *BUT* always browse with all scripting switched off. If I come across a *blank* website I ask myself these questions:
1. Do I trust this site?
2. Do I really need to look at it?
3. How intrusive will the flash be?
More often than not I will look at the next site on the google hit list.
Now to find out if the submit button requires scripting!
Thanks for the talk last night, Niqui. Good night all around. I was the chap from SAE who approached you after the talk (Amir is a co-worker here). If you find time, we’d love you to come and give the talk or something similar to our students. We pride ourselves on being one of the few educational establishments which pushes standards-compliance throughout our course, though it would be good to further develop this on the Flash elements of the curriculum.
Hi Niqui,
Well said – I could not agree more. Both Flash and js have accessibility capabilities. Disabling Flash and JS does not mean you are free of your responsibilities to make the content accessible. My own personal opinion is that this attitude is similiar to the rationale behind text only sites. If there is no possible other way to provide content, then, in rare exceptions, it is fine. However, in the overwhelming majority of cases, using progressive enhancement without making the Flash and js itself accessible leaves people with disabilities an inferior, second class experience. We’ve been through that already, it did not work.
@Amir – Nice to see you name again. As someone who personally provided you with information on accessibility at Macromedia, I am too happy to provide you with all of the latest info. I understand you are frustrated with the situation on right to left support. While I don’t have news for you, I can tell you that I forwarded your requests at that time and continue to speak with the team on that point today. I won’t make excuses other than to say we are listening.
There have to be always alternative to Flash.
I’m not agains Flash, but in FF if you open 10 pages overheaded with flash advertisement, well
my PC is in knee. IE not… but FF rulez!
Hi Bob, it’s nice to ‘see’ you again as well. I’ve always appreciated your ongoing efforts to promote awareness and educate people using Flash how they can make their project more accessible. As we see with the latest AJAX based web apps, the very dynamic nature of an application tends to create accessibility issues.
It seems that with both HTML and Flash based UI accessibility works very well when the UI is static and no local updates take place (loading external movies and text in Flash for example). I know that the WAI are working on addressing accessibility and dynamic web apps and look forward to see what they come up with.
As far as Bi-Directional support, I appreciate your help and know that there’s more to this then a technical solution of course. It seems only appropriate that a technology which is hailed as the next platform for internet development, would be able to support text properly, on a truly global level.
Hi Bob, Amir,
I heard from Flash programer, here in Israel, that despite the problems that Flash have to support RTL languages, Macromedia provide a plugin (maybe a device font solution) that enable the input of hebrew text in Flash window.
Could you let me know if it’s only a rumor or does it really exist?
Thanks for your help.
I am wondering if there is any way to make flash accessible for people using voice recognition technology, like you say progressive enhancement doesnt really help at all as if you have flash enabled you wont see the alternate content. As someone who has had to start using V.R. recently i find this pretty frustrating, and if theres a solution id be interested in including it in my projects