Recommended reading: Web site accessibility
Accessibility for Everybody: Understanding the Section 508 Accessibility Requirements
This book is important in two respects. First, it focuses on US accessibility law 'Section 508' compliance, so is highly valuable for those developing Web sites for consumption stateside. Second, while most other books look at accessibility issues related to the Web and people with disabilities, Accessibility for Everybody looks at the 'whole picture' - accessibility for everyone in every environment. This makes it especially useful for organisations with older applications that may never appear on the Internet, but will require some type of remedial upgrade to make them more accessible and compliant with Section 508. This is important because Section 508 doesn't just cover Web pages but also provides rules about every aspect of computer use.
Buy 'Accessibility for Everybody' from Amazon UK |
Building Accessible Websites
The content of this book is good - but marred by poor presentation (in fact presentation bordering, ironically, on the inaccessible). Typefaces are too small and information isn't broken up into easy to find sections or chunks. Also, some essential topics, such as issues when using JavaScript, are glossed over. What's there is good, though, and in a field where there are few good books, this one is still recommended - but for developers not business managers.
Buy 'Building Accessible Websites' from Amazon UK |
Designing with Web Standards
The dog's knees. A book for Web designers and developers, rather than business managers, but with an essential message for everyone with a Web site: stop wasting time making Web sites 'backwards compatible' with every old Web browser under the sun and start making them 'standards compatible' and 'forwards compatible'. Every Web designer or developer should be forced to read this book: every business manager should be advised of its core message. Following this book, not only will your Web sites be more accessible, they will load up to 60% faster, be viewable on far more devices and be more search-engine friendly. Well worth the twenty quid.
Buy 'Desiging with Web Standards' from Amazon UK |
Maximum Acccessibility
This book is what every Web developer should be faced with: a blind person's experience of everyday Web pages. It is hard for Web designers to understand what makes a Web page inaccessible - in fact the term 'inaccessible' sanitises the problems faced by blind people when navigating Web pages that are not designed with some deference to the visually disabled. So share this blind Web user's experiences as he tries to undertake the most basic of on-line tasks, like buying a book, or finding the time of a bus. Humbling and essential reading which put us in our place and started us on the road to our commitment to accessible Web sites. We encourage others to follow. Also, this is a great book for business managers to understand how their Web sites unwittingly alienate potential customers.
Buy 'Maximum Accessibility' from Amazon UK |
Web Accessibility for People with Disabilities
A practical and approachable book that is neither preachy or patronising. This books touches on all the important aspects of Web site accessibility: the law, different types of disabled visitors and the type of browser applications which they might use, common accessibility issues and how to address them, testing Web pages for accessibility - and so on. In a fast-moving field, this book (written in 2000) threatens to be overtaken by developments, but still remains an essential publication. An American focus, but but not overly biased, it's worthwhile worldwide.
Buy 'Web Acccessibility for People with Disabilities' from Amazon UK |