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Making splash pages accessible

If you use plugins (such as Flash) or scripts (such as JavaScript) on your pages you could be preventing users from entering or using your site properly. There will be people who will have difficulty accessing the navigation or progressing past a Flash front page (splash page) for any of the following reasons:

  • They are browsing without JavaScript and / or Flash
  • They are using a text-only browser
  • They are using a screen-reader which does not interact with JavaScript and / or Flash
  • They are using a keyboard instead of a mouse
  • They are using a slow modem

Relationship to checkpoints

Checkpoint 6.3 requires that pages remain usable when scripts, applets or other programmatic objects are turned off or not supported. This means that if a computer does not have Flash installed or does not support JavaScript, that the site still functions.

Example Solution – Splash page

Background

Meldrum’s List is a web site designed to provide information on lawyers in the firm of the same name. The site is Level A accessible while still providing a modern look and feel. One thing Meldrum’s List requested was a Splash page:

Meldrum's list splash page stages 1, 2 and 3


Solution

Meldrum's List needed to design a solution that catered to the needs of people that did not have either the software or physical ability to interact with a Flash presentation. Their solution included:

  • Flash detection script
  • Skip link

Flash detection script

A flash detection script was used so that people without Flash installed were taken straight to the home page of the site:

Screen shot of the Meldrum's List home page.


Skip link

People who are using a screen-reader, using a keyboard or accessing the site through a slow modem will still activate the Flash script but they will have difficulty viewing or interacting with it. Flash is not recognised by screen-readers so a user would not be aware of the Flash script. On conclusion of a splash page you usually navigate to the home page by clicking on the Flash presentation, however this sometimes cannot be activated by a keyboard. People using a slow modem may have to wait fifteen minutes for the presentation to be completed before they can proceed on to the home page.

In all these cases the problem is that the plugin is not recognised or cannot be activated. The solution must:

  • Provide a way of navigating to the home page that will be recognised by a screen-reader
  • Be able to be activated by a keyboard
  • Be available before, during and after the Flash presentation

Meldrum’s List decided to add a single text link on the Splash page, labeled ‘enter’. Screen readers are able to read the link, and it can be activated by the keyboard at any stage during the presentation. This link should always appear before the splash page, however it was later moved in this instance.

Further information

General

 Use of Flash

Added: 6 July 2007 Page views: 2,156 Rating: 0 Votes: 0
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Last updated: 6 July 2007