• More On Macromedia Flash

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Flash
E. Brazil
Final Touches In
Macromedia Flash
Flash Accessibility
Accessible Components 1
Accessible Components 2
Colour and Text Use More On Macromedia Flash
Useful Tools
XMLSockets1
XMLSockets2
Eoin Brazil
EventDispatcher
OpenSTV File Format
Online Resources about CS4358 Interactive Media
Accessiblity
Semester 2 - 2007
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Flash
E. Brazil
Remembering to design for
Final Touches In
Macromedia Flash Accessibility
Flash Accessibility
Accessible Components 1
Accessible Components 2
Colour and Text Use
Useful Tools
XMLSockets1
1 Provide Text Equivalents
XMLSockets2
EventDispatcher 2 Provide Context Information
OpenSTV File Format
Online Resources about
Accessiblity 3 Control Animation Use
4 Provide Captions
5 Use Colour Wisely
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Flash
E. Brazil
Flash MX 2004 Accessible
Final Touches In
Macromedia Flash Components
Flash Accessibility
Accessible Components 1 Enabling a Flash components accessibility is achieved using the
Accessible Components 2
enableAccessibility() function.
Colour and Text Use
Useful Tools
• Simple Button
XMLSockets1 • Check Box
XMLSockets2
• Radio Button
EventDispatcher
OpenSTV File Format • Label
Online Resources about
Accessiblity
• Text Input
• Text Area
• Combo Box
• List Box
• Window
• Alert
• Data Grid
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Flash
E. Brazil
Fifth Flash Exercise - Flash MX
Final Touches In
Macromedia Flash 2004 Example Accessible
Flash Accessibility
Accessible Components 1
Components
Accessible Components 2
Colour and Text Use
Useful Tools Sample code for using the accessible Label component is:
XMLSockets1 import mx.accessibility.LabelAccImpl;
XMLSockets2
LabelAccImpl.enableAccessibility();
EventDispatcher
OpenSTV File Format Sample code for using the accessible Check Box component is:
Online Resources about
Accessiblity import mx.accessibility.CheckBoxAccImpl;
CheckBoxAccImpl.enableAccessibility();
Sample code for using the accessible Simple Button component
is:
import mx.accessibility.ButtonAccImpl;
ButtonAccImpl.enableAccessibility();
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Flash
E. Brazil
Flash MX 2004 Colour and
Final Touches In
Macromedia Flash Text Use
Flash Accessibility
Accessible Components 1
Accessible Components 2 In addition to blind users, there are many people with colour or
Colour and Text Use low vision problems. A simple step is to ensure that both the
Useful Tools
foreground and background colours are selected to provide
XMLSockets1
sufficient contrast which will help ensure readability. Text can be
XMLSockets2
made sharp and legible by using the Dynamic Text option and
EventDispatcher
OpenSTV File Format
using a even font size of at least 12 or greater. Dynamic Text
Online Resources about
can be select by clicking the Static Text drop-down menu (the
Accessiblity
menu to the right of the ”A” graphic) and then selecting the
Dynamic Text option. A useful tool is Colour Doctor, it
simulates grayscale and three different types of color blindness.
Another tool is the Colour Blindness Simulator, which allows you
to upload a JPEG image (max size 1000 pixels x 1000 pixels and
less than 100 KB) and see how colour blind users would see the
image.
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Flash
E. Brazil
Some More Useful Tools
Final Touches In
Macromedia Flash
Flash Accessibility
Accessible Components 1 Colour Contrast Check: This tool allows you to specify a
Accessible Components 2 foreground and a background colour and
Colour and Text Use determine if they provide enough of a contrast
Useful Tools
”when viewed by someone having color deficits or
XMLSockets1
when viewed on a black and white screen” (W3C).
XMLSockets2
EventDispatcher
Photosensitive Epilepsy Analysis Tool: This tool can be used to
OpenSTV File Format conduct luminance flash and red flash evaluations
Online Resources about to determine risk of seizure-provoking content.
Accessiblity
Readibility Test: This website can determine the Gunning Fog,
Flesch Reading Ease, and Flesch-Kincaid scores
for a webpage. The reading level algorithms are
only a rough guide to help you select the text for
your project. If you want to find out more on
readability, follow this link.
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Flash
E. Brazil
Client-side Flash MX and
Final Touches In
Macromedia Flash Sockets - 1
Flash Accessibility
Accessible Components 1
Accessible Components 2
Colour and Text Use
Flash MX has support for sockets using the XMLSocket object
Useful Tools
which uses an XML data format for message passing. To create
XMLSockets1
XMLSockets2
an XMLSocket object in actionscript:
EventDispatcher mySocket = new XMLSocket();
OpenSTV File Format
Online Resources about The are 3 methods for XMLSocket objects:
Accessiblity
1 connect(host, port), tries to connect to the specified host on
the port number specified.
2 send(xmlObj), sends and XML Object to the server.
3 close(), shuts down the connection.
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Flash
E. Brazil
Client-side Flash MX and
Final Touches In
Macromedia Flash Sockets - 2
Flash Accessibility
Accessible Components 1
Accessible Components 2 The are 4 events for XMLSocket objects:
Colour and Text Use
1 onConnect, this is fired when the connection is established
Useful Tools
with the server.
XMLSockets1
XMLSockets2 2 onData, when some data is received this handler
EventDispatcher automatically invokes the onXML event.
OpenSTV File Format
3 onXML, invoked when and XML Object is sent to the client;
Online Resources about
Accessiblity the XML Object must be terminated with a 0 byte,
otherwise the event won’t fire.
4 onClose, fired every time the connection is closed by the
server.
This tutorial provides an example of Socket communication using
Actionscript. The Flash-XML FAQ site answers many questions
with regard to using XML in Flash.
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Flash
E. Brazil
Flash MX and Event
Final Touches In
Macromedia Flash Dispatching
Flash Accessibility
Accessible Components 1 Flash MX allows for the separation of functionality between
Accessible Components 2 classes by using the EventDispatcher object. To create an
Colour and Text Use XMLSocket object in actionscript:
Useful Tools
import mx.events.EventDispatcher; //adds three
XMLSockets1
XMLSockets2
methods to the current class instance:
EventDispatcher
addEventListener, removeEventListener, and
OpenSTV File Format dispatchEvent
Online Resources about EventDispatcher.initialize(this);
Accessiblity
There are several advantages to using EventDispatcher objects:
• Several objects can listen to the same events.
• The event object you receive always includes a reference to
the caller.
This tutorial provides two examples, a pseudo-button and a form
using conditional elements which have been implemented using
an EventDispatcher object.
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Flash
E. Brazil
OpenSTV File Format
Final Touches In
Macromedia Flash
Flash Accessibility
Accessible Components 1
Accessible Components 2
Colour and Text Use
Useful Tools
XMLSockets1
XMLSockets2
EventDispatcher
OpenSTV File Format
Online Resources about
Accessiblity
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Flash
E. Brazil
More resources online for
Final Touches In
Macromedia Flash Accessiblity and Flash
Flash Accessibility
Accessible Components 1
Accessible Components 2
Colour and Text Use Two particular sites deal specifically with tools for Accessiblity
Useful Tools and the last two sites deal with accessibility and Flash, in
XMLSockets1 particular.
XMLSockets2
• The first resource is from the University of Minnesota
EventDispatcher
OpenSTV File Format
Duluth and is available at Web Design Tools.
Online Resources about • The second resource is from the W3C and is their
Accessiblity
Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool page.
• A good chapter, available online is Accessible Flash. A
followup page is Adobe’s Accessibility Blog.
Another useful resource is the lecture on ”Designing for different
abilities” from the course website.