Re: [WSG] Flash is more accessible than CSS?

[Nick Cowie]

The article appear based around one person, Leonie Watson opinions and they are very different to mine and probably most people on this list.

Leonie Watson quote about CSS
"However, that's quite a new technology, it's only been around a couple of years, and a lot of designers are still very wary of using it."
But wasn't CSS introduced in 1996 the same year as Future Splash aka Flash? (source wikipedia)

Most designer I know are more wary of using Flash than CSS. I know because I have  been campaigning to use flash for vector images and most designers are wary of using flash over a gif or jpeg even though the flash file is much smaller file and can be scaled.

"Two years ago, Adobe updated this technology so designers using Flash could build in accessibility features."
I saw Bob Regan Macromedia and now Adobe accessability evangelist, give a demo four years and I was impressed then by how accessible Flash could be in the right hands. (He also gave a great demo on CSS and accessibility).  Macromedia and Adobe have been working on Flash accessibility for many years now, not the last couple.

"It [Flash] has a lot of very easy ways to build in accessibility, providing the developer sets out to do that from the beginning"
As with any website technology, flash or otherwise. The main problem is the lack of flash web designers who understand accessibility. I have yet to met a flash web designer who has a more than a basic understanding of accessibility and actually builds accessible flash websites. The best I have seen is a text only alternate version. Not that I have meet a lot of flash web designers.

My opinion (and that what it is an opinion) is that flash website can be accesible when:
1. the are built by a flash web designer who understands accessibility and how to achieve that with flash; and
2. the audience are using a reasonably powerful windows computer with  recent versions of the OS, IE, flash and other software required (ie the latest version of JAWS as a screen reader).



--
Nick Cowie
http://nickcowie.com
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