October 9, 2006 at 9:17 pm · Filed under Accessibility, Geek talk
A few days ago, Roger Johansson made a post which brought me to the attention of the flash website flowchart.
Russ’ (thegooglecache) genius confirms many people’s thoughts that flash sites these days are not accessible.
From my intial encounter with flash 5 years ago, it would appear that every common site would have a splash page, some funky motion tweening, some swanky actionscripting that would make you want to learn more. You saw the likes of 2advanced, yugop, and many more making their stand in the web world. It looked like everybody was jumping on the flash/actionscripting bandwagon!
Now that accessibility has made such an impact in the web industry, how things change. Now we surf the web with the hopes of quick loading, search friendly, and cross browser/cross platform friendly sites, that do not deny access to ANYBODY.
For those that attended Robin Christopherson’s talk at @media this year, you will recall his macromedia flash example in which he couldn’t get passed the first slide with his screen reader, despite the presentation being on “Designing Accessible Flash”.
I’ve always been a fan of flash, but only when it is used in the right way. For many entertainment sites, it coincides with the content. You want something cool, something funky, yet you cannot sacrifice that for obtainable content. There has to be a balance.
I believe that flash should be used for subtle effects, what I like to call the niceities of a site. As well as animations such as A Break in the Road, and games such as those created by ferry halim. These sites are created for entertainment value to a particular type of target audience.
For those companies/organisations that wish to reach out to all users, use flash sparingly.
Tags: flash, accessibility, atmedia2006, atmedia
June 19, 2006 at 11:20 am · Filed under Accessibility, Geek talk
Today someone asked how she could persuade a colleague to include accessibility and standards compliance in the requirements for a major site redesign. I can’t meet with every hostile boss and nay-sayer on the planet, gently persuading each of them to see the light. But I can talk to them through the quiet pages of DWWS 2e, if you would like me to.
Aahhh…the pain of convincing people that don’t realise the importance of accessibility and web standards!
Jeffrey Zeldman has released his second edition of his very successful book Designing with Web Standards (2nd Edition). Its available for pre-order on the US version of Amazon, but isn’t available here just yet.
For those that haven’t read his first edition book, I highly recommend it. And for those that thought you had it covered with standards compliancy…well I guess we’ve got more to catch up on!
Tags: web+standards, jeffrey+zeldman
June 18, 2006 at 9:29 pm · Filed under Accessibility, Browsers, CSS, Geek talk
So here lies the second day summary of the @media conference, which was jam packed full of geeky stuff. Read the rest of this entry »
June 18, 2006 at 6:07 pm · Filed under Accessibility, Browsers, CSS, Geek talk
Having fully recovered from the last two day’s worth of events, I guess you could say its about time that I give a quick overview of the two day affair…one - so that I can keep a note of the conference, and two - to share with those that didn’t get a chance to attend, a rundown of what went on. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: atmedia, atmedia2006
May 8, 2006 at 3:51 pm · Filed under Accessibility
I’ll be attending some FREE seminars this week at Earls Court for Internet World 2006 on web accessibility and usability.
The next project we’ll be dealing with at work is to make the site more accessible. Right now there is a lot that needs to be done, but all should be cool.
I’m not sure whether to follow the guidelines off that exist at present or follow what’s in WCAG 2.0 but it’ll make for some interesting if not long reading…god bless the w3…it sure is a good site to read up on if you’re suffering from insomnia 
