Web Accessibility for People With Disabilities

Rating:
Summary: I love books that give practical advice along with theory
Review: And this author does just that!

As an ad hoc webmaster where I work (no extra money, but all the responsibility!), I was dismayed to learn that my "great" web site design was, in fact, difficult or impossible to use by several employees with impediments to standard web access. I wanted to fix things, but was unsure how best to proceed.

Paciello's book is an excellent overview of the legal and social reasons to make web sites accessible -- it's truly an eye-opener! Better, though, is that he gets in to the nuts-and-bolts markup and techniques used to create more accessible information, the utilities used to validate pages for accessibility, and some of the tools used to facilitate site/page upgrades. [As another reviewer noted, the particular software/versions in the book are now out of date, but their successors aren't -- and the underlying theory and technique is still applicable, too.] None of the techniques or resources are rocket science; it's just nice to have a book that lays them all out together, explains why they should be used, and helps you do it. It really is almost painless to make information much more readily available to those with special access needs.

I would say this is a definite must-read for anyone designing or maintaining a web site for anything other than a personal site (and even conscientious personal site owners will probably want to take a look). For a business, it may very well be the law that you must make information equally accessible to those with physical or cognitive disabilities. Beyond that, though: it's just the right thing to do.

Rating:
Summary: I love books that give practical advice along with theory
Review: And this author does just that!

As an ad hoc webmaster where I work (no extra money, but all the responsibility!), I was dismayed to learn that my "great" web site design was, in fact, difficult or impossible to use by several employees with impediments to standard web access. I wanted to fix things, but was unsure how best to proceed.

Paciello's book is an excellent overview of the legal and social reasons to make web sites accessible -- it's truly an eye-opener! Better, though, is that he gets in to the nuts-and-bolts markup and techniques used to create more accessible information, the utilities used to validate pages for accessibility, and some of the tools used to facilitate site/page upgrades. [As another reviewer noted, the particular software/versions in the book are now out of date, but their successors aren't -- and the underlying theory and technique is still applicable, too.] None of the techniques or resources are rocket science; it's just nice to have a book that lays them all out together, explains why they should be used, and helps you do it. It really is almost painless to make information much more readily available to those with special access needs.

I would say this is a definite must-read for anyone designing or maintaining a web site for anything other than a personal site (and even conscientious personal site owners will probably want to take a look). For a business, it may very well be the law that you must make information equally accessible to those with physical or cognitive disabilities. Beyond that, though: it's just the right thing to do.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource
Review: If you are new to the field of web site accessibility and assistive technologies, you will enjoy this book. It was written to be easily understood. Never fear, you will learn something if you get this book and read it. I use it as a resource....

Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource
Review: If you are new to the field of web site accessibility and assistive technologies, you will enjoy this book. It was written to be easily understood. Never fear, you will learn something if you get this book and read it. I use it as a resource....

Rating:
Summary: Good book - product review now out of date
Review: The sections on how to make pages accessible appear to be exactly what we need. Just be aware that this book came out in 2000 and the products reviews are way out of date. For example, Dreamweaver Version 2 is discussed in the book and even in 2000 Version 3 was out. Now we have Version 4. Same with Frontpage, HomeSite, etc.

However, what we need is HOW to make the pages accessible and this book appears to cover that well. As long as you don't look at the product section as being the latest information, this book is a good one -- and I think the only one of its kind.

Rating:
Summary: Accessibility - a "rights" thing to do.
Review: This exhaustive study of the whys and hows of providing accessibility to the World Wide Web was written by pioneer and major participant in the important effort to make the Web usable by everybody.

Although focusing on issues dealing with access for People With Disabilities, the impact on usability of the Web by everyone is made clear.

The major section outlining the almost certain legal consequences of ignoring these matters is must reading for anyone involved in providing materials on the Web. Remember: PROGRAMMERS ARE CHEAPER THAN LAWYERS!

Rating:
Summary: Where is the Large-Print version.
Review: Web Accessibility for People With Disabilities

We can't find a Large-Print version of this book. Can people with Disabilities read this book?

Professional Web Developers need access to the resources available in Large-Print. Perhaps this book has the answers? It is not accessible to us.

If anyone knows that this book is accessible to low-vision readers please let us know.