Aral Balkan

Executive Summary: FlashAid enables Ajax/JavaScript to find out if a user's screen reader is currently communicating with the browser and turn off the JavaScript functionality accordingly to make their sites accessible. It only works on Internet Explorer on Windows.

And now the full story...

I just released an update to FlashAid that, well, actually makes FlashAid useful.

You can see a live demo of FlashAid here.

(FlashAid only works on Internet Explorer on Windows. Make sure you have your screen reader on before testing.)

Version 0.1, the previous release, was a proof-of-concept that I hacked together after a talk with Jeremy. All it did was pass the value of the System.capabilities.hasAccessibility property from Flash to JavaScript.

The Adobe Flash docs for System.capabilities.hasAccessibility states the following:

A Boolean value that is true if the player is running in an environment that supports communication between Flash Player and accessibility aids; false otherwise.

What the documentation should state, is:

A Boolean value that is true if the player is running in Internet Explorer on Windows.

Essentially, that's all hasAccessibility appears to show. The Flash player uses MSAA to talk to screen readers but it only works in Internet Explorer (FireFox has MSAA support but the Flash player returns false for hasAccessibility on that platform, for example.)

So, the FlashAid proof-of-concept was essentially useless (you can check for IE on Windows with one line of code in JavaScript.)

Version 1.0, though, does have an important use. It's a one trick pony that communicates the value of Flash's Accessibility.isActive property to JavaScript. This one's useful because, on Internet Explorer on Windows, it tells you whether the user's screen reader is actually communicating with the browser.

Why is this important? Because it allows Ajax developers using progressive enhancement to detect whether the user is using a screen reader and turn off the Ajax/JavaScript functionality to allow these users to access their sites and applications.

Again, keep in mind that this only works for Internet Explorer on Windows but it's still an improvement on what was previously possible.

I hope you find FlashAid v1.0 useful.

Comments

• I remember Adobe Legal not allow other people using Flash(TM) in their products, check FlashObject(SWFObject) case.

  by luar on 2007-02-27 14:39:55

• Hi Luar, If they have a problem with it, I'll change it. I blogged about my reasons for using "Flash" in the name of this: I think it does the Flash Platform good to be associated with it. It can just as easily be called AjaxAid if necessary.

  by aral on 2007-02-27 17:35:44

• [...] This post is out of date: See my post on the latest version of FlashAid (1.0) for up-to-date information. [...]

  by Introducing FlashAid: Using Flash to improve accessibility in Ajax at Aral Balkan on 2007-02-27 17:47:35

• Hey Aral, this is great. I was asking Niqui if we could build something like this, and lo, she said "Aral already had". You rock. I'm still tempted to make it a combination solution though, I don't like relying on one technology to support another. I think I'm going to use SWFObject to check for Flash and if there isn't Flash insert an off-screen AJAX warning into the DOM. If there is Flash FlashAid can deal with it. It might be good user experience to insert something off-screen to notify the user that AJAX has been turned off and give them an option to turn it back on if they have JAWS 7.1 or Windows Eyes 5.5 .

  by Tom on 2007-02-27 20:31:24

• Hey Tom,

  I think I'm going to use SWFObject to check for Flash and if there isn't Flash insert an off-screen AJAX warning into the DOM.

  Aral already had! :P You can use the failure callback for this. FlashAid already uses SwfObject to embed the flashAid.swf file. If Flash doesn't exist or is the wrong version, the failure callback will be called. You can handle this any which way you like in the failure handler.

  It might be good user experience to insert something off-screen to notify the user that AJAX has been turned off and give them an option to turn it back on if they have JAWS 7.1 or Windows Eyes 5.5 .

  Can you give me an example what you mean -- doesn't sound difficult to add if it's going to be useful. I'm assuming this is for those times that JavaScript is off? (Currently, the alternate content in the flashAid div is displayed in these circumstances.)

  by aral on 2007-02-27 20:57:14

• [...] I’m glad Niqui talked about FlashAid. Aral and Jeremy did a fabulous job. I posted some comments on how I would like to see Flash Aid used already, but I look forward to seeing what the community thinks. [...]

  by Kid666 Blog » Blog Archive » Web Standards Group London - Accessiblity on 2007-03-01 09:47:30

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  by Monopolio Podcast .... el podcast más demandado on 2007-03-05 18:18:02