Creating Accessible Flash

May 5th, 2011

CIO Council

Introduction


Working with developers and accessibility specialists, the Veterans Healthcare Administration (VHA) Section 508 Office has created a comprehensive course that addresses known accessibility issues with implementations of Flash, a platform that adds animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. This VHA online guide is both an instructional training course and a quick reference that developers and project teams can use while planning, developing, testing, and remediating Flash content for accessibility.

Best Practice Guidelines


Individuals taking this course will:

  • Come to understand the principles of creating accessible Flash content,
  • Step through the procedures for each subject with Flash examples as reference,
  • Get testing procedures and methodologies for select subject areas,
  • Get checkpoints relating each subject to the Section 508 standards,
  • Review subjects with a short quiz, and
  • Walk through coding examples for select subject areas.

Benefits


A web search on “Accessible Flash” will turn up a wealth of information on how to make Flash content accessible. Unfortunately, much of it is outdated and some is irrelevant because of updates to Flash. This comprehensive course is updated roughly twice a year and is useful both in training and as a quick reference.

Examples

VA Accessible Flash Course