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This page contains links to available players, authoring tools, and to tools that are useful for making rich media accessible. Please suggest tools to add to this list.

Players | Authoring Tools | Accessiblity Tools

Players:

Authorware

  1. Authorware Player 6 — version 6 of the player is required for accessible Authorware content using the Authorware Application Accessibility Kit.

Director

  1. Shockwave Player 9 — version 9 of the player incorporates a speech XTRA that makes delivery of self-voicing Director applications possible.

Flash

  1. Flash Player 6 — version 6 is the first version of the Flash player that works with screen readers.

PDF

  1. Adobe Acrobat Reader — version 5 is the first version of the Acrobat Reader that works with screen readers.

QuickTime

  1. QuickTime Player — version 4.1.2 is the first version of QuickTime that supports SMIL.

Scalable Vector Graphics

  1. Adobe SVG Player — supports SVG 1.0.
  2. W3C listing of SVG viewers

SMIL

  1. RealPlayer — RealPlayer G2 was the first version to support SMIL 1.0. Only the RealOne Player supports SMIL 2.0
  2. GRiNS — from Oratrix, GRiNS supports SMIL 2.0.
  3. W3C listing of SMIL 2.0 players
  4. W3C listing of SMIL 1.0 players

Windows Media

  1. Windows Media Player — Windows Media 9 uses SMIL for some server-side playlist functions.

XHTML+SMIL

  1. Internet Explorer — called HTML+TIME by Microsoft, this SMIL implementation works in Internet Explorer 5.5 and above.

Authoring Tools:

Authorware

  1. Macromedia Authorware 7 — versions 6.5 and 7 include an accessibility kit to help create accessible learning applications.

Director

  1. Macromedia Director MX — Director MX is the first version to include accessibility behaviors to allow the creation of accessible, self-voicing applications.

Flash

  1. Macromedia Flash MX — Flash MX includes an accessibility panel for adding equivalent information and a new ActionScript object and methods.
  2. Adobe LiveMotion — authors SWF files, but does not currently support the addition of equivalent information.
  3. Inspect32 — an MSAA testing tool from Microsoft, Inspect32 displays information in the MSAA "tree".

Java

  1. IBM Hot Media Editor — A java-based solution for incorporating rich media effects into Web applications (Mac and Windows).

PDF

  1. Adobe Acrobat tools — Adobe has several products that create PDF files, including Acrobat, Capture, InDesign, Distiller, and Elements.
  2. Acrobat Make Accessible Plug-in — helps make Acrobat 5.0 documents accessible.
  3. Inspect32 — an MSAA testing tool from Microsoft, Inspect32 displays information in the MSAA "tree".

PowerPoint

  1. Microsoft Office Web Publishing Accessibility Wizard — helps create accessible HTML versions of PowerPoint presentations.

QuickTime

  1. QuickTime — QuickTime Pro adds authoring capabilities to the QuickTime player, but QuickTime's SMIL support removes the need for the "Pro" version for certain uses.
  2. Adobe LiveMotion — authors QuickTime files.
  3. LiveStage — from Totally Hip Software, LiveStage is used to author interactive elements for QuickTime.
  4. MakeRefMovie — Apple's free QuickTime reference movie creation tool for Mac and Windows.
  5. XML to REF Movie — A free QuickTime reference movie creation tool for the Macintosh.
  6. PAGEot — a free tool to help contruct object and embed tags correctly.

Scalable Vector Graphics

  1. W3C listing of SVG Editors

SMIL

  1. GRiNS Pro Editor for SMIL 2.0 and GRiNS Editor for RealOne — SMIL editors from Oratrix.
  2. Adobe GoLive — a WYSIWYG layout environment that supports SMIL 1.x and SMIL-Basic Wireless Profile.
  3. W3C listing of SMIL 2.0 Authoring Tools
  4. CWI SMIL syntax validator — A Web-based tool that will check your SMIL for errors.

Accessibility Tools:

Captioning Tools

  1. MAGpie 1.0 — the original Web-based media captioning tool (Windows only).
  2. MAGpie 2.0 — create captions or audio descriptions for Web media with this free tool from NCAM (Windows or Mac OSX).
  3. Macaw — create QuickTime caption tracks (Macintosh).
  4. HiCaption — a new captioning tool (Windows only).
  5. VideoSync — a free captioning tool for QuickTime.

Audio Description Tools

  1. MAGpie 1.0 — the original Web-based media captioning tool also offers some support for audio description (Windows only).
  2. MAGpie 2.0 — create captions or audio descriptions for Web media with this free tool from NCAM (Windows or Mac OSX).

Assistive Technology Tools

  1. JAWS — JAWS 4.5 and newer supports Flash content. JAWS 3.7 and newer support PDF. A 40-minute (per boot) trial version of JAWS is available.
  2. Window-Eyes — Window-Eyes 4.2 and newer support Flash content. Window-Eyes 4.1 and newer support PDF. A 30-minute (per boot) demo version of Window-Eyes is available.
  3. HAL — HAL supports Flash content. A free trial version is available.
  4. Lunar Screen Magnifier — Dolphin's screen magnifier, which supports Flash content. LunarPlus adds speech to the magnifier.
  5. Windows Magnifier — a useful tool for developers on Windows to use for preliminary testing purposes.
  6. Windows Narrator — a useful tool for developers on Windows to use for preliminary testing purposes.
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