Flash Audio

Accessible Flash Streaming Audio

by Daryl Croke

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Embedding and Accessibility

Generally there are no problems for screen readers interacting with 3rd party pop-up players such as WinAmp, Real Media or Windows Media. However some users resent the advertising carried with some players and feel it detracts from the audio presentation. Screen readers on the Linux platform don’t support Windows based players such as Media Player.

I asked screen reader manufactures and users whether it was good practice to embed players into a page. The answer was an emphatic no! Sean McMahon, who surfs the net using screen reader, talked about his frustration when using embedded players.

"I have an answer to your question about embedded playing of streams. Bad!!

Many times the embedded playing is a con for advertising and usually crashes.

Also, with embedded players you don't know what's playing your stream or file. I like the fine sound control of real player or WinAmp opening up in a separate window/buffer. Many times if I want to stop listening to the embedded stream and I close it, the whole browser closes if it doesn't crash first."

The exception to the "don’t embed rule" is Macromedia Flash. With Flash MX, Macromedia released a set of accessibility features that allow for smoother interaction between a screen reader and Flash content. Accessibility features in Flash MX are design to work in conjunction with Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) through Internet Explorer.

A word a caution though, Flash MX is only accessible for Windows based screen readers. This is an issue because screen readers that run on Windows, like JAWS are fairly expensive. It is possible to download free demonstration versions but these time out after a short period. Therefore developers should be aware that the inclusion of Flash effectively locks potential users into using expensive commercial software.

Not all vision-impaired users purchase Windows based screen readers. There is a strong community of visually impaired users dedicated to free and open source Linux applications, at the moment no Linux based screen readers can access Flash players. This situation could improve in the near future with the development of Gnopernicus a new Linux based screen reader.

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