I'm going to talk about the first three chapters of the book. In particular, I'm going to post some quotes from the book. Some things really caught my attention and that is what I want to share first.

From Chapter One

1. Usability problems impact all users equally, regardless of ability (Page 10).

2. Accessibility problems hinder access to a web site by people with disabilities (Page 10).

3. Certainly, in developing guidelines specifically for accessibility, it is often difficult to distinguish between usability and accessibility. It becomes clear that many design aspects that are good for general usability are required for accessibility (Page 12).

4. Between 15% and 30% of the general population have functional limitations that can affect their ability to use technology products. That represents an estimated 50 million people in the US alone, and over 750 million worldwide (Page 16).

5. Myth: Accessible Pages Have To Be Plain (Page 26).

6. Myth: Just Add a Text-Only Version (Page 27).

7. Myth: Assistive Technologies Take Care of Web Access (Page 28).

From Chapter Two

1. Raising the alarm, the United Nations notes that more than half a billion persons were disabled worldwide and that approximately 80 per cent of this population lived in developed countries (Page 34).

2. There are two types of approaches to specifications for accessible web design: W3C WCAG, an international voluntary standard, and Section 508, a US legislative mandate for Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards (Page 51).

From Chapter Three

1. Now screen readers look at the Document Object Model (DOM) of the page to know what the browser would display. For the web, as well as for some other applications, screen readers are not reading the screen any more, not even reading what was written to the screen... (Page 54).

2. JAWS for Windows and Window-Eyes are used by probably over 90% of users of the web who are blind (Page 55).

3. The bottom line is that when we talk about access to the web for people who are blind, we are talking about Microsoft platforms (Page 56).

Posted by: John S. Rhodes on August 5, 2002 10:38 PM

 

I think the myths pointed out in Chapter One are interesting. When I think of accessible web sites, I think of dry, boring, stiff web sites. Ones with no jazz. I am wrong! Web sites can be accessible and exciting. They don't need to be all text. Dash that idea from your mind.

In the second chapter, what struck me most is that a lot of people are disabled or impaired. In some cases people cannot hear, in others they cannot see. Other people are colorblind, still others have trouble typing and writing. It almost seems that we are all broken, damaged or impaired. In some ways, I suppose that is entirely true since no person is perfect, if that actually makes any sense, or is possible.

Chapter Three makes one thing very clear: Microsoft is pro accessibility. For all the hassle I have given them over the years, they do seem to care about accessibility. While I could probably make an argument about how they are only doing it for profits, I won't. I'll just say here that Microsoft has done a lot for the world of accessibility.

Now that I have written out some quotes, and now that I have shared some of my thoughts on the first three chapters, what do you think? What did you like about the first part of the book? Speak up!

Posted by: John S. Rhodes on August 5, 2002 10:46 PM

 

John wrote:
"While I care very much about usability I often do not consider accessibility."

I think that is why you wouldn't find it hard to make an accessible site. If an HTML site is usable, then there are probably only a couple of technical issues to account for, and it will be usable for everyone.

My favorite quote from the book is:
"many design aspects that are good for general usability are required for accessibility"

If you actually try a screen reader, it becomes obvious why you should have consistent navigation. The screen reader essentially linearizes everything, so if the navigation is moved (in the code) or changes a lot, it can make it impossible to get around. That is just one example.

But, if you pay attention to the usability, it's just small technical things that you might need to change to make it accessible.

The book it pretty good at covering how each technology deals with web pages, but I'm not sure how much more useful it would be to a web developer than the http://diveintoaccessibility.org/ series.

Posted by: Alastair on August 6, 2002 05:31 AM

 

This is truly the first complete resource book on accessible Web design. It covers lots of ground from law to design.

We have a long way to go in education designers and managers to invest in design about accessibility. One of the simplest things to do is add the ALT tag to graphics. A gosh darn lot of sites don't even do that.

It's not just for the developer, but also it's for the manager -- the decision maker. Design shops don't always have the ability to convince companies to do certain things. This book will.

Alastair is right that diveintoaccessibility.org is awesome. I love how it creates personas for different people and show what works and doesn't work.

The beauty of creating sites with XHTML and CSS is that a screen reader won't go nutty over the structure since content is separate from structure.

Posted by: Meryl on August 6, 2002 06:23 PM