Dynamic Flash

I’m heading down to Brighton this evening for this year’s Flash on the Beach conference, and right now I’m feeling like a kid on the night before Christmas.

Last year I didn’t plan my schedule in advance, and ended up missing some sessions I’d really like to have seen. This year I thought I’d be ultra-prepared and decide what I wanted to see in advance. With that in mind, here is my personal schedule for the conference:

Monday

1. 09:00-10:00 Keynote: Overview of Flash CS3 Professional - Richard Galvin
2. 10:15-11:15 Localising Flash Content and Applications - Dave Williamson
3. 11:30-12:30 Understanding Adobe AIR - Mike Chambers
4. 13:30-14:30 Adobe AIR for Interactive Designers - Lee Brimelow
5. 14:45-15:45 The Pirates of Accessibility - Niqui Merret
6. 16:00-17:00 Dynamic Abstraction - Joshua Davis
7. 20:00-21:00 Inspired: If it ain’t broke, break it! - Brendan Dawes

Tuesday

1. 09:00-10:00 Flex and ActionScript 3.0 Worst Practices - Ted Patrick
2. 10:15-11:15 Perceptive Interactions & Alternative Interfaces - Craig Swann
3. 11:30-12:30 2D or not 2D, that is the question - Mario Klingemann
4. 13:30-14:30 Mobile Flash Development - Dave Yang
5. 14:45-15:45 Flashing Flex - Tink
6. 16:00-17:00 Breaking away (Processing) - Robert Hodgin
7. 20:00-21:00 Inspired: Beyond the Knowledge - The Art of Playing - Erik Natzke

Wednesday

1. 09:00-10:00 Adobe Town Hall Meeting - Adobe
2. 10:15-11:15 Stylising Flex Applications - Joey Lott
3. 11:30-12:30 Klangfabrik - Andre Michelle
4. 13:30-14:30 Visualising Time - Marcos Weskamp
5. 14:45-15:45 Flex Application Development: Done in 60 minutes - Mike Jones
6. 16:00-17:00 Algorithms to Fill Space - Jared Tarbell

I’m not sure how much of the after-hours partying I’m going to get to. Last year my fellow Yahoos and I sloped off to a local bar and spent the evenings drinking beer and shootin’ pool rather than partying, which is much more my kind of scene.

Anyway, if you’re lucky enough to be going the the best Flash conference on the planet, I’ll see you on the beach.

Yesterday, Adobe released Flash Player 9 Update 3 Beta 2, which (aside from a ridiculously convoluted name) has caused much furore in the industry.

With the big headline feature of the beta dominating the blogosphere - that’ll be native HD-video playback via H.264 support, in case you’ve been hiding under a rock - you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was the only feature added to this release. In fact, there were several less glamourous features listed in the release notes that passed pretty much uncommented, including support for Flex framework caching and full-screen support on Linux.

One of these less-publicised features is that Flash Player 9 for plugin-based browsers on Windows, which includes Firefox, Opera and Safari 3, now supports the Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) layer, which means that properly-authored Flash content should now be accessibly to screen reader users on Windows regardless of which web browser they choose to use. Support for MSAA in Internet Explorer has been included since Flash Player 6.0r65, so it’s nice to see support now being added across all supported web browsers on Windows.

This isn’t a panacea for all Flash’s accessibility ills - the Flash Player is still lacking support for accessibility layers on other platforms, for example - but, when coupled with the ability to get video subtitles included in the H.264 feature, it is an encouraging step in the right direction for Adobe.

Niqui Merret has compiled a great list of Flash accessibility related issues on her blog. Some of these issues have clunky workarounds - like not using the wmode setting (I did say clunky) - so if you’re creating or using Flash content, be sure to check out this list to make sure you’re not unintentionally harming the accessibility of your project.

The only thing I have to add to this list is that Firefox support for MSAA on Windows appears to be coming in the next beta version of the Flash Player 9, based on Emmy Huang’s post on Flash Player 9 Update 3 Beta.

Oh, and if you feel strongly enough about any of the accessibility issues, don’t forget to file a feature request. While all the issues Niqui mentions aren’t necessarily the fault of the Flash Player team, if you let them know what’s important to you they can work with the browser manufacturers to sort out any issues.