[thelist] flash accessibility/usability

[martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com]

Memo from Martin P Burns of PricewaterhouseCoopers

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Subject:    RE: [thelist] flash accessibility/usability


>Hmm, are you really trying to achieve something you can't yet do, or is it
>more that you don't like certain presentations that people-in-the-world
>find it advantageous to create? I might be able to help with the former,
>but not so much with the latter...!

John, the question which several people have been asking is "If
Flash has all these capabilities to reduce or remove many of the
main criticisms of Flash, why don't people use them..?"

I don't know if you can answer that or not, or if the answer you'd give
is any more than the current suggestion that "It takes too long", which
either speaks to the laziness/narcissism of Flash developers (ie that
it doesn't take too long - they'd just rather create stuff that goes whiz),
or to a weakness in the tool that essential tasks are difficult to carry
out.

The other general criticism is that much (most?) Flash is used for
tasks where it doesn't add value over HTML/Server Side coding,
where the main argument is "Because it moves", or (possibly more
honestly in some cases) "Because we do Flash so Flash is what you
need"

Of course, this last fault is not one of the tool, but of greedy, lazy
Flash
developers, but maybe there's a case for a module in your certification
programme on requirements analysis and knowing when Flash is the
right tool to use. (If you have that already, maybe it needs reassessing,
or the penetration of the certification isn't high enough).

>Later on, from another writer in that other thread:
>> boo hoo. Toys back in the pram please.

>Ah, thanks, you've given me an excuse to delete the rest of that thread
>unread.... ;-)

And to quote part responses out of context. To recontextualise, that was
in response to a condemnation of Jakob and all his works because the
author didn't like his favourite technology being dissed. Sorry if you
skipped over that point.

Cheers
Martin
(btw nice pic of you at
http://www.macromedia.com/desdev/jd_forum/jd002.html)

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