What isn't accessible
Flash
Flash 5, the most common version in use at present is not accessible for screen readers or text based browsers. There have been changes made to
Flash version 6 and later versions, which have made it
accessible to screen readers. The problem is that most people only have Flash Player 5 installed on their computer and will not be able to access
it. The other problem is that Flash will not be picked up by text based browsers.
A separate [D] Link (description link) can be added, which will take the user
to a HTML version of the Flash site. Please see here for more about the D link.
Javascript and DHTML
Javascript and DHTML cannot be read by screen readers or text based browsers and things like error checking and drop down menus will not work. There
are alternatives to using Javascript & DHTML, which often will take longer to build. It is best to discuss with the development team what the
possibilities are before planning out websites that may use this technology.
Images that contain Diagrams, Animated GIFs, etc
Images by themselves cannot be read by screen reading software. What the screen reader actually picks up is the ALT tag.
This is a tag added to the image within the HTML code that you can add any text you want to. To see an ALT tag, sit you mouse cursor
on any image on the screen of your web page. It will show you a description providing the developer has added the ALT text!
When you have images that convey information; such as a flow chart, diagram, animated GIF etc, you will need to provide the relevant
description in the ALT tag. At times this may be too long to fit within an alt tag. A separate [D] link will need to
be added next to the image to take the disabled user to another page containing an in depth description. This doesn't have to appear
on the page. To find out more about the [D] link, click here.
Video and Audio
Obviously, the visual side of Video only will be accessible to deaf people. This can be overcome by creating a new version containing subtitles, or
Captioning. This requires the use of SMIL, or Synchronized Multimedia Integration
Language. A lot is involved in coding this. In the meantime, a [D] link which describes the content will satisfy
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0