Thanks for your input, Peter, I found that very useful. I would certainly agree with your comment:
> Its all about the audience! And in the case of the e-learning site you linked to (nice work, by the way, the web designers top tips are especially good) Flash is definitely the way to go. I know what my kids would say if I gave them the choice between a fun Flash interface and boring textual information. However I don't for one minute think that anyone here believes that "flash is always evil", but rather were concerned about the apparent imbalance in the way Flash was presented in the article as the only sensible route to accessibility, especially at the expense of CSS and web standards. As you say yourself an "incredible amount of work is done" to ensure accessibility within your Flash sites, and you are to be commended by that. However, as has been mentioned already, many designers may not have the time or inclination to put this work in, whereas CSS to a large degree does a lot of the work for you, even if the rendered output is not as immersive. Thanks for your input, it's appreciated. Chris ________________________________ From: listdad@webstandardsgroup.org [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Peter Costello Sent: 31 October 2006 09:36 To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org Subject: Re: [WSG] Flash is more accessible than CSS? First. I am a firm believer in web standards. Not just CSS but also usability and accessibility. The article is by no means comprehensive and the BBC do have a vested interest in selling their efforts at accessibility. But... I currently do a lot of flash work for the BBC on the Digital curriculam Jam project ( https://jam.bbc.co.uk/HomeElevenPlus.aspx?TBReturnUrl=%2fAuth%2fWelcome. aspx&pn=GB-ENG&pl=en-GB&psy=year10 <https://jam.bbc.co.uk/HomeElevenPlus.aspx?TBReturnUrl=%2fAuth%2fWelcome .aspx&pn=GB-ENG&pl=en-GB&psy=year10> ) and it's worth pointing out that The BBC DO spend a great deal of time, effort and money on accessibility. The content we are working on is e-learning for kids delivered in the form of games and interactives. These are massive projects and could only really be delivered in flash. The audience for each project is 7-11, 11-14 & 14-16 year olds respectively. To keep a 7 year old entertained while learning is no easy feat and flash allows us to create games that house that learning. Its all about the audience! An incredible amount of work is done from the planning stages to ensure the content is accessible in terms of tab groups, text sizing, speach text, captioning and just as importantly visual design. It's not perfect and not all suppliers do as much as they could but it is a valid platform for the content. Sadly, there are not generally alternative versions of the content but in a certain sense the content would be deemed boring by the audience if it was. Im by no means an expert on flash and accessibility, we have other people for that but flash is not always evil and those are my two cents. Cheers Pete On 10/30/06, russ - maxdesign <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > or a direct approach? > > http://www.talentnetwork.co.uk/team/team_katie.html It is a great idea to rally together to let people know about the problems in the BBC article/report. However, we should be very wary of directly criticising or attacking any individual. Apart from the moral/karma issues, it is less likely to get a positive result :) Thanks Russ ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ******************************************************************* -- -- Peter Costello www.domestik.net ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ******************************************************************* ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
