[Nfb-science] Computer animations and screen readers

[Mike Freeman]

Patrick:

I must ask: what do you mean by "accessible" in this case? That is, how
would *you* make a screen animation accessible? What are you expecting?

Flash can be made accessible in the sense that controls can be made to work
properly with screen-readers. If you have a sufficiently fancy subscription,
go to MLB's site and fire up a game using the *regular* media player, not
the "Accessible GameDay Audio" player. It takes perhaps thirty seconds to
load but you'll see an accessible Flash player whose controls can be
manipulated using the keyboard.

However, I suspect you mean that the animations would be described. Although
there are some projects considering how to make graphics in books accessible
by allowing descriptions to be inserted without violating copyright, I know
of nothing similar for screen animations.

Bottom line: your best solution would be to use 3D models and to use a human
reader to describe the animations if the professor insists upon you using
them.

Mike Freeman


-----Original Message-----
From: Nfb-science [mailto:nfb-science-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Patrick Johnson
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2014 6:27 AM
To: NFB Science and Engineering Division List
Subject: [Nfb-science] Computer animations and screen readers

Group,

A few weeks back I asked if anyone had used Primal Online Learning, no one
has.  I am interested in the product because a colleague of mine who teaches
Biology is looking for a program where his online students can watch
computer animations as learning objects in an Introduction to Anatomy class.
In the case of Primal the animations are coded in Flash and do not appear to
be screen reader friendly.

My question, is anyone teaching with or taught with computer animations?  If
so were they screen reader friendly, and if so how were they made screen
reader friendly?  I ask because I am unsure if the issue is one requiring
the animations to be coded in a certain way or if a plug in at the browser
or screen reader could be added to make the animations accessible.

Thanks in advance for your collective wisdom and insight.

Patrick

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