With the release of the latest Harry Potter book, author J.K. Rowling has had her site upgraded to accommodate those with a variety of disabilities, using Macromedia Inc’s Flash technology.
The site, designed by Lightmaker of London, makes liberal use of image and sound, providing an accessible version available through a keystroke or mouse click.
Significantly, the site does not ask the user which kind of disability they have, opting for more subtle features. According to Bob Regan, senior product manager for Macromedia, the omission was by design.
They wanted to support people with disabilities rather than stigmatize them, he said, noting that the design of the accessible site is designed to detect subtleties, such as whether the screen reader for the blind feature is turned on in the operating system, or provide discrete menu options such as a request to magnify daily news to display large text.
In those cases, the site automatically defaults to audible text and keyboard navigation, or large text display. For the motor impaired, the site can automatically be navigated by keyboard using unique keystroke combinations that are not used in popular programs such as Outlook.
Ironically, Rowling took relatively little interest in her website until last year. Previously restricted to carrying links to Rowling works and articles, last year web-only content was added to extend the Harry Potter experience. With the new version, persons with disabilities are invited to join in.
In recent years, Macromedia has added features to its stable of development tools to ease the process of developing for the disabled.
That included capabilities for Flash Player to support screen readers, prompts in the Dreamweaver web authoring tool for adding text, plus new constructs in the ActionScript language for the Flex rich Internet client development framework that enabled able-bodied developers to design for the disabled, and for disabled developers to design for anybody.
For instance, the tools can be configured to provide audio to supplement images for web authors with learning or development disabilities.
Too often, accessible sites are not examples of great design, said Regan, who added that developers have long labored under the notion that making sites accessible would force them to dumb down their designs. According to him, the Rowling site is visual proof that accessible sites can still be visually and artistically stunning.
