I'm a blind developer who is considering learning Flex. According to this link when you compile a flex application with the defaults it isn't accessible to screen readers. Why is this, are there performance issues I should be aware of, or was this just an arbitrary choice Adobe made?
+1
A:
I think thats because it would increase the size of the compiled SWF, but I have no detailed information about this topic.
ChrisBenyamin
2009-08-11 13:26:42
I just did a test, turning accessibility on increases the size of the compiled swf from 219k to 226k when compiling the ButtonBarExample xml file found in the controls folder of the explorer sample. I'm not sure if size is the reason but it's something to consider.
Jared
2009-08-11 13:55:55
A:
Simple Flex applications (like the samples) will benefit from having accessibility enabled. Unfortunately a large / complex Flex app requires a lot of effort in the design and implementation phases in order to be made properly accessible; it's not as simple as just enabling that one checkbox in Flex Builder. For this reason I'm sure Adobe decided to optimize the size of the SWF files generated by Flex Builder by disabling accessibility by default. More info on Flex accessibility can be found here:
cliff.meyers
2009-08-11 17:07:34