Today I was fumbling around my insurance provider’s website hoping to make my bill payment online and get it set up automatically because despite constant calls changing my address on the policy and begging them to send me the bill, they still insist all this time to continue sending the bill to my parent’s address. Go figure.
Anyhow, I could not register for it. For some reason, I kept getting defeated when I tried to enter my social security number. I kept entering my SSN, and it kept getting denied. So I clicked on the “contact us” link at the side in hopes of getting some help.
Nope. The contact form was in flash. I usually avoid flash like the plague (too many suprise screaming sounds or enough flashing animation to induce a seizure) but let in and decided to install it so I could use the contact form. What saddened me, however, is there’s no need to use flash for it at all… all it is is a simple form with some special effects that could easily be reproduced using javascript.
Which is where I am trying to get with this crazy rant. Content should be accessible despite what platform you run or what you have installed… that’s the whole philosophy and purpose of the web. What makes this worse though, is what about blind people? How’s a blind person supposed to use the contact form if Jaws can’t read it? Section 508 violations abound!
