Lisa,
I've had the same experience you have. Many websites are hard to work
with because of Flash. Occasionally the whole site is inaccessible. More
often, only parts of the site are. Unfortunately, the problem may be the
area I'm interested in reading. Using Skweezer and the mobile versions
of the sites is an alternative, but many sites don't have mobile
versions, and the Skweezer version often includes a message like: "To
use all features of this site, you need to visit the full version."
What's especially frustrating for me is that this is an even bigger
problem for work related sites. At one of my jobs, Impact 360, an
employee website used for many routine tasks like weekly schedules and
time off requests, is minimally accessible. I can do maybe 20% of the
tasks I'm supposed to. At all three jobs, the web based training suite,
which we use once or twice a year, is absolutely and completely
inaccessible, and at all three jobs, parts of the other interfaces I'm
expected to use regularly have a small number of Flash related
accessibility issues. for example, I tend to lose focus about once every
thirty seconds on all websites, and at one of my teaching jobs, I need
to follow six or seven steps in order to access my rosters and post
grades, but need sighted assistance for the last step, which is checking
a box the screen reader doesn't detect. Since these suites are developed
by large companies and sold to institutions and businesses, clicking the
Contact Us link takes me to the local webmaster for the school or
business, not to the people who develop the suite. I don't know for
sure, but I suspect my complaints don't get forwarded because the local
webmaster figures I'm a lone voice, one of a handful of blind peple with
a job. I'm bothered by the fact that equal access hasn't made its way to
software and professional websites. I'm not the only blind person with a
job.
I've also heard that Flash alternatives will be developed. the Mac
doesn't support it and neither do many mobile platforms. This makes life
difficult for a lot of people, not just us. But I've heard the Flash
alternative rumor for a couple of years, and I don't notice any changes
at the work place. In fact, the version of Impact 360 we were using a
year ago, when I started that job, was much more accessible than the new
version, implemented earlier this summer. With the old version, I could
do 50% or so of the things I needed to do. Now even checking my weekly
schedule is slow, tedious, and buggy.
I guess the moral of the story is that we just have to wait for the
magical Flash alternative.
Ciao
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