Accessibility of Applets versus Flex RIAs...

Steve Longdo — Sat, 26 May 2007 18:58:00 +0000

I’ve been doing some research into providing support for section 508 accessibility compliance for a simple file browser available inside a web browser. There really is a dearth of information available on the topic from a software implementation stand point.

Java Applets seem to pay lip service to providing support for accessibility by the addition of tons of code labels that would need to be maintained with each release. Certain activities don’t seem to be supported at all for users with accessibility needs (opening tree nodes for example). The most recent documentation I could find on Applets and Accessibility on Sun’s website is called What’s new in Accessibility and is dated October 30, 2000 clearly Sun took their role as an industry leader in web technology very seriously…back in 2000. (As an aside is referring to a user of an applet as a Robot just a little offensive to anyone besides me?)

Adobe Flex, however, seems to view accessibility as a core issue in the design of their product. So much so that they provide a very simple xml attribute for MXML files (<accessibility>true</accessibility>) to turn on a host of accessibility features. This requires almost no extra effort on the part of a software developer. There are a small number of caveats to their support, but they have taken the steps to detail them and best practices for accessibility on their site including a functional understanding of how Flex works with JAWS and Braille screen technologies. Adobe even maintains a current website dedicated to the accessibility of their products.

Musings of a Trained Monkey: Tag accessibility

Accessibility of Applets versus Flex RIAs...