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About this Course
In this training, you will learn how to apply the principles of accessible Flash to creating Section 508-compliant Flash presentations.
The main content of this course is presented in 15 lessons, which follow this Course Introduction. All students should take the Accessible Flash Overview lesson first. This lesson introduces basic terminology and presents an overview of Flash accessibility requirements that will help you find what you need as you proceed through the course.
Two-Track Lesson Structure
Each of the remaining 14 lessons provides both conceptual and technical instruction.
Flash Accessibility Principles
The first half of each lesson presents principles of Flash accessibility in clear, non-technical language. All personnel involved in Flash development projects for VA, from project managers to software developers, should proceed through this part of the instruction, which includes:
- An introduction to one or more principles of Flash accessibility
- Examples that illustrate how users are affected when those principles are violated
- Non-technical explanations of related accessibility requirements and approaches to meeting them
- Conceptual knowledge checks
When you have completed this part of each lesson, you may choose to proceed through the technical procedures that follow. If you are not a developer, you may wish to skip the technical portion and proceed to the beginning of the next lesson.
Flash Accessibility Procedures
The second half of each lesson includes one or more technical procedures for meeting the Flash accessibility requirements explained earlier in the lesson. This part of each lesson includes:
- One or more specific techniques for meeting each accessibility requirement
- Suggestions for self-testing to ensure an accessible product
- A link to VHA Section 508 Office checkpoints related to each requirement
- Technical knowledge checks
You can also access the procedures covered in a lesson by selecting them from the Topic menu from with the lesson or by selecting them from the Index.
Navigation
To navigate within a lesson, you may use the forward arrow (Next) and the back arrow (Back) at the top and bottom of each page; you may also use the topic menu at the bottom of each page. A progress indicator on each page (Page x of y) will help you keep track of where you are within each lesson.
When you complete a lesson, you may proceed directly to the next lesson by selecting Next on the last page. You can also use the menu at any time to move to a different lesson or to review material in a lesson you have already studied.
User Perspectives
Throughout this course, you will find examples designed to provide you with first hand experience of the challenges faced by AT users in Flash. Many of these examples are demonstrations that open in a separate window and have their own controls. The controls that you will find in the user perspective demonstrations are labeled on the image that follows:
Glossary, Resources and Index
This course includes some additional resources for you to use during the training and later on the job.
The navigation bar at the bottom of each page includes two links that look like little books with the letters G and R on them. From these links, you can access the course Glossary, which has the definitions of some terms and acronyms used in this course, and Resources, which includes documents you may wish to refer to from time to time.
In Resources, you will find a link to a Microsoft Word document of the complete Glossary content, a list of frequently-used keyboard commands for screen readers,
a link to the General Services Administration's Section 508 web site and several Section 508 development checklists that are referenced in this course.
This course is indexed to help you find information and procedures quickly when you need them on the job. The Index for this course is available from the menu.
Select Next for information on how to get VHA Section 508 help.
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