The files

Included in this release are the following zip file downloads:

• colour_swfs files = the colour movies (named with the convention, col_.swf)
• bw_swfs files = the black and white movies (named with the convention, bw_.swf)
• colour_flas files = the colour flash mx 2004 source files (named with the convention, col_.fla)
• bw_flas files = the black and white flash mx 2004 source files (named with the convention, bw_.fla)
• MP3 sound files = compressed versions of the original audio clips supplied.

The files can be previewed here:

colour:
movies a-c
movies d-g
movies h-l
movies m-r
movies s-y

black and white:
movies a-c
movies d-g
movies h-l
movies m-r
movies s-y

Clicking on any of the symbols should return you to this page.

Limitations

For the purposes of production, no more than 10 of these flash movies should be used on any one page as an absolute upper limit. Because they all have sound, the results can be unpredictable even on newer, more powerful machines when a great deal of rich content is displayed. The recommended amount is between 1 and 5 symbols per page.

More than 10 are used per page in the above preview index for ease of use only.

Accessibility features

After a lot of consideration, we decided to disable Flash MX's accessibility features on these movies (a text description of the movie subject, e.g. 'webcasting' and adding a keyboard shortcut to speak the word) for the following reasons:

The movies should never be used independently of a text description, and if they provide a link to another page then there should be a corresponding descriptive link within the text accompanying the symbol.

For users with screen-readers, a flash movie should only provide accessible content (text descriptions of the movie's content) if it contributes to their understanding of the page. The accompanying text on the page renders the movie's own description superfluous.

Similarly, interrupting the page’s tab order and overriding any keyboard settings that the user may have, in order to control the speech button in each movie, would be counter-productive as the screen-reader would need to pause while a term already in the text of the page was repeated.

For users with accessibility problems and no specialised software, the movies themselves are by their nature, entirely adequate to support any accompanying text and simple enough not to require closed captions.

Minor changes

Some of the movies have names that contain spaces or other characters that may cause problems during web development or usage. The spaces in the filenames for these movies have been replaced with underscores and any non-alphabetic/numeric characters have been removed. The original names are listed here, should they need to be changed back.

• ask_for_information.swf = ask for information.swf
• councillor_surgery.swf =councillor surgery.swf
• e-mail_alert.swf = e-mail alert.swf
• e-mail_this_councillor.swf = e-mail this councillor.swf
• e-mail_this_member_of_parliament.swf = e-mail this member of parliament.swf
• frequently_asked_questions.swf = frequently asked questions.swf
• government_policy.swf = government policy.swf
• I_agree.swf = I agree.swf
• I_disagree.swf = I disagree.swf
• interactive_television.swf = interactive television.swf
• large_print.swf = large print.swf
• local_government.swf = local government.swf
• local_policy.swf = local policy.swf
• local_politics.swf = local politics.swf
• member_of_parliament.swf = member of parliament.swf
• mobile_phone.swf = mobile phone.swf
• online_consultation.swf = online consultation.swf
• online_forum.swf = online forum.swf
• opinion_poll.swf = opinion poll.swf
• prime_minister.swf = prime minister.swf
• share_ideas.swf = share ideas.swf
• speaking_up.swf = speaking up.swf
• text_message.swf = text message.swf
• video_message.swf = video message.swf
• virtual_tour.swf = virtual tour.swf
• what_do_you_think.swf = what do you think.swf
• what's new.swf = whats_new.swf

For the sake of smaller filesizes, the audio was converted to MP3 prior to importing it into flash.

Using the symbols (technical)

Add the symbols to the page using whatever method is applicable, in this example the default flash embed tag is used.

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swfl ash.cab#version=7,0,0,0" width="150" height="170" id="example" align="middle">
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" />
<param name="movie" value="example.swf?g=http://www.example.com/example.htm" />
<param name="quality" value="high" />
<param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff" />
<embed src="example.swf?g=http://www.example.com/example.htm" quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="150" height="170" name="example" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />
</object>

The only addition made to this is the ‘g’ parameter for the movies. If the ‘g’ parameter is provided, then it is treated as a URL by the movie and becomes the target of the link formed by the image area in the movie. If ‘g’ is not provided, then the link in the movie does not lead anywhere.

A limitation of flash is that, without support from external javascript, links will open in the current window. For this reason, it is recommended that the movies are not used to link to non-affiliated/untrusted sites.

Buttons
The buttons in each movie extend beyond the limits of the visible button to make them easier to use. This illustration shows the actual area of the buttons.

Using the symbols (layout)

All of the movies are 170px high. All of the movies are 150px wide, with the exception of the following:

• yes = 80px wide
• mobile phone = 80px wide
• opinion poll = 100px wide
• phone = 110px wide
• text message = 100px wide
• video message = 100px wide
• fax = 110px wide
• e-democracy = 200px wide
• share ideas = 200px wide

The movies are scalable, but these variations in size and proportion should be taken into account when placing them on a page to avoid distortion.

In normal use, text is placed underneath a symbol. For the purpose of these flash movies, it would be better to place any text above the movie rather than below. This is to avoid any confusion that might be caused by the 'speaker' icon. See below for an example of usage.