RE: Frontpage to Flash move

-----Original Message-----
From: Gregor Wolbring [mailto:gwolbrin@ucalgary.ca]
Sent: Monday, April 29, 2002 1:09 AM
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Frontpage to Flash move


Hi ewverybody,
I want to move away from Frontpage to Flash MX.
Do you know in which code the urls are written? Are they in XML? 
I assume Flash is more accessible than Frontpage. Or assume I wrong? Or
do I have to use Dreamweaver and XHTML?
when you look at my webpage in the moment it's pretty inaccessible.
http://www.thalidomide.ca/gwolbring


Gregor

It is great that you have made a commitment to redesign your site so that it is
accessible for people with a range of different needs. As you have noted, the
site is currently largely inaccessible but this would not be difficult to
repair. Certainly it is not viable to recreate an entire site in Flash - nor is
it advisable to rely on Flash. The guidelines recommend that any components
within a Web site that use scripting should also be accessible without
scripting. So you would achieve nothing in moving from html to Flash. In fact
it would be a retrograde step, because there are major accessibility problems
relating to Flash. These are being addressed in the latest MX release but there
are still many issues not yet resolved. Refer to Week 4 of the Webaim traininig
event at this url http://www.webaim.org/training2002/week4/flash and also Joe
Clark's article: http://www.alistapart.com/stories/flash_mx_clarifying/ for
further information.

Gregor you would be best advised to familiarize yourself with the W3C WCAG
Guidelines and curriculum training materials and to undertake a course in
designing accessible Web sites. Webaim is offering a free course at
http://www.webaim.org/training2002/

Some of the obvious things you can fix immediately are:
-applying alternative text to all images
-avoiding use of flashing images (such as the new icon)
-using style sheets for markup
-ensuring sufficient contrast between foreground and background text
-providing logical groupings of links and a means for skipping navigation links
-checking linearization of your tables used for layout of text (ideally use
style sheets instead of tables for layout)

These are just a few brief observations after a quick skim of the site. You
should test your site using Bobby and other evaluation and repair tools listed
on the W3C site: http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/existingtools.html

In short Gregor - you do need to do some major redesign work on the site but
first familiarize yourself with the techniques for accessible Web design. Flash
is not the answer to your problems - it will simple exacerbate the problems.

Good luck

Dr. Denise Wood
University of South Australia

Received on Monday, 29 April 2002 01:06:30 UTC