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Adobe Announces Flash and Flex Accessibility for Mac

24 March, 2010 @ 2:29 pm by Lioncourt

Today, Adobe Systems announced their intention to support accessibility with their Flash and Flex tools on multiple OS platforms, including Mac OS X. The full statement reads:

Adobe understands how important it is for computer users with disabilities to be able to access the entire Internet. In recognition of the needs of computer users with disabilities, as well as the demands on developers who need to easily create applications and content which comply with global accessibility standards, Adobe is planning major upgrades to the accessibility support in Adobe Flash Player.

The upgrades expand on Flash Player’s existing support for accessibility via the Microsoft Active Accessibility interface (MSAA) and will enable accessibility across all three major operating systems (Windows, Mac, and Linux). The Flash Player will employ IAccessible2 from the Linux Foundation and the WAI-ARIA specification from the W3C to address user and developer needs and to ease interoperability with assistive technology vendors.

Additionally, enhancement are planned to the free and open-source Flex software developer’s kit (SDK) including improvements to complex components such as Flex datagrids and adding support for WAI-ARIA to simplify development of custom user interface components. These improvements are expected to start with the next major release of Adobe Flash Player (following Flash Player 10.1), and the first successive release of the Flex SDK.

We are cautiously optimistic that Adobe will hold to this commitment, despite the lack of accessibility in native iPhone applications built using the Flash platform, which we strongly encourage Adobe to rectify.

The real question, ultimately, will be whether or not the accessibility of Flash and Flex will be adequate, as well as whether Adobe will be as successful in encouraging developers to support accessibility as Apple has been.

We applaud this announcement. This is the first step in the right direction, but Adobe has a long road ahead of them to convince Mac and iPhone users with disabilities of their commitment to accessibility. Here’s hoping that Adobe has turned a new page in accessibility of their products.

Posted in Apple Inc., Commentary, Development, iPhone, Misc, Petitions, Third-Party Products, VoiceOver, Windows | 5 Comments »

5 Responses to “Adobe Announces Flash and Flex Accessibility for Mac”

  1. chica_bonita wrote:

    I really hope they have turned a page forward and allow the access. It’s one draw back to the mac OS for certain sites and we are restricted in some apps because of the lack of adobe’s accessibility. From a company who boast accessibility on their website, they’ve shown a poor fullfilment for VI computer users. I’ll remain hopeful because only time will tell. But who else thinks that Apple’s continual refusal may have a tiny part to play in this announcement?And I hope this transfers over to the IPhone and IPad apps too.

    March 24th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
  2. chojiro commented:

    Well, hopefully this will make a difference. I’m rather skeptical, mainly because Adobe practically rejected accessibility for the Mac for the longest time, saying that there were not enough Mac users for it to matter. Well, technically, I don’t really consider not having Flash a drawback for the Mac. Most developers on Windows, when you could see the Flash items, you would only hear the control but not be told what the button might do. SO I personally haven’t missed it at all. Despite that, though, Adobe seems to want to try to rectify the problem. I guess we’ll see what happens, huh?

    March 25th, 2010 at 1:09 am
  3. TVSoundGuy reflected:

    This is an interesting development. Apple realizes something the rest of the world won’t admit to—Flash sucks. This is why the iPad doesn’t support Flash, as Apple is banking on HTML 5 as being the next evolutionary step in web-based browsing and applications.

    As a signatory to the petition for Flash accessibility , I’m glad Adobe is taking this step, however the roll out of HTML 5 may mean decreased market share for a company that has had way too much control for way too long.

    March 25th, 2010 at 7:09 am
  4. Dan Eickmeier wrote:

    As another signatory of the petition, i’m definitely pleased to see that Adobe has finally started to wake up and smell the coffee. On one of the mainstream Mac podcasts I regularly listen to, they were talking about HTML5, and how full implementation of it could be at least three years away, So therefore, I think it’ll be good when we do get this access to Flash. It’s about time that we have access to it. Even though it’s not on the iPod Touch, iPhone, and soon to be shipped iPad, it still is available for the Mac.

    March 25th, 2010 at 11:43 am
  5. TVSoundGuy observed:

    Interesting again that Flash is only supported on a Mac computer and not any of its mobile products. As I understand it, the W3C has posted the last revision of HTML 5 for final commentary and it’s expected to be adopted by the end of the year. Knowing Apple’s track record for innovation, I imagine they are already running mobile and desktop versions of Safari in their R&D department that is fully HTML 5 compliant, revisions notwithstanding. I imagine that some future version of iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch will support Flash in some iteration, but it’s more likely they’ll come HTML 5 ready in a second gen incarnation.

    I think what is really needed here is a commitment from key software vendors to adhere to the Apple Accessibility API with some type of certification for gold, silver, bronze and lead accessibility.

    Could this be the new beta vs. VHS war of the 2010s?

    March 25th, 2010 at 6:07 pm

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