Web-Development Online News Articles Information

Flash And Accessibility Workshop In Brighton

"The power of the web is in it’s Universality. Access by everyone, regardless of disability is an essential element"

Tim Berbers-Lee – founder of the World-Wide-Web

From the simple beginnings, the web has grown tremendously. In order to stand out in this sea of information, designers started to add gradients, drop-shadows, a few rounded corners and some stepped out of the box to push the boundaries of technology to provide rich media experiences online. This creative direction has often had little thought for disabled users resulting in many inaccessible sites.

This is complicated by the large number of users who have different needs, who are not and should not be considered disabled. Browsing, shopping, finding entertainment on the web are no longer just for the younger generation. The appearance of terms like "Silver Surfers" and "Hacker-gran" demonstrates that the 50+ age demographics have arrived on the net. In an effort to encourage equality, many countries have started to introduce legislation requiring companies to be accessible in all areas including their online presents. It is no longer acceptable to discard a users' use of the Internet as a means of communication with a company, by insisting they use an alternative such as the telephone.

Accessibility in the online world has come a long way over the last few years. For websites to continue to offer rich media content which is at the same time as accessible as possible, more and more Flash developers are starting to create content that is accessible to users of different abilities.

Flash Developers need to know about such topics as Flash content interacting with screen-readers, audio and screen-readers, colour and font considerations, controlling the motion, captioning videos and optmising keyboard interactions. They also need to know such things as how to test websites for accessibility and how assistive technologies which are available to disabled users work.

Anja Merret lives in Brighton, UK. She has recently started a blog and writes on issues that interest her from self-improvement to tech stuff for amateurs.

Anja has had a varied and interesting career journey. She started as a high school teacher, changed professions to become an admin manager at her late husbands law firm because this allowed her the flexibility to look after her small children at the time. After many years she left this position to try her hand at an art gallery, moved across to public relations and finally found her niche in education again managing a computer training centre for many years. During this time she also involved herself in writing standards and qualifications in the new media field. 10 months ago she moved from South Africa to join her younger daughter. She now writes a blog and also looks after the business interests of her daughter who is a Flash and Accessibility expert. She has BA (Hons) MBA degrees and on rare occassions she feels like a frustrated wannabe academic.