Rating: 
Summary: A Useful Perspective
Review: In this book, Clark presents a lot of advice to help authors in creating accessible websites. Each chapter gives advice (albeit very opinionated) on how to design accessibility into a page. Because this is done outside the pale of established accessibility standards, this is not a book to read if you want to learn the standards. However, this perspective does emphasize that accessibility is much more than just meeting a few checklists on a Section 508 or W3C WCAG form.Clark's writing is engaging and colourful; that having been said, if you tend to appreciate dispassionate books, this is not a book for you.
Rating:
Summary: A Useful Perspective
Review: In this book, Clark presents a lot of advice to help authors in creating accessible websites. Each chapter gives advice (albeit very opinionated) on how to design accessibility into a page. Because this is done outside the pale of established accessibility standards, this is not a book to read if you want to learn the standards. However, this perspective does emphasize that accessibility is much more than just meeting a few checklists on a Section 508 or W3C WCAG form. Clark's writing is engaging and colourful; that having been said, if you tend to appreciate dispassionate books, this is not a book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-Structured, Useful and Practical
Review: Joe Clark's detractors are the sort of critics who would gleefully detract from anyone who shows the poor taste to believe what they say and say what they mean. It's far easier to construct a rambling, nattering bleat of discontent than it is to actually write a book on web accessibility. The book is structured to support multiple levels of interest and involvement. If you want to understand the entire history of web accessibility, it's there for the reading, but if you'd prefer to skip the narrative and get to the nitty-gritty how-to, the road signs are clear. In addition, the tools are there for proficiency levels from the first-time web designer who is willing and able to contribute only 101% toward accommodating the disabled to the veteran developer for whom 200% is still insufficient. Clark makes it clear that not everyone is so well-informed, so esoteric, and so single-minded as he; nor should they be. He merely makes it possible to try. Accommodating, flexible, and wry -- much like the best of the Web -- "Building Accessible Websites" is as many things to as many people as such a book could possibly be.
Rating:
Summary: Well-Structured, Useful and Practical
Review: Joe Clark's detractors are the sort of critics who would gleefully detract from anyone who shows the poor taste to believe what they say and say what they mean. It's far easier to construct a rambling, nattering bleat of discontent than it is to actually write a book on web accessibility. The book is structured to support multiple levels of interest and involvement. If you want to understand the entire history of web accessibility, it's there for the reading, but if you'd prefer to skip the narrative and get to the nitty-gritty how-to, the road signs are clear. In addition, the tools are there for proficiency levels from the first-time web designer who is willing and able to contribute only 101% toward accommodating the disabled to the veteran developer for whom 200% is still insufficient. Clark makes it clear that not everyone is so well-informed, so esoteric, and so single-minded as he; nor should they be. He merely makes it possible to try. Accommodating, flexible, and wry -- much like the best of the Web -- "Building Accessible Websites" is as many things to as many people as such a book could possibly be.
Rating:
Summary: Plenty of detail, fun to read
Review: Many books on accessibility make you feel guilty and some offer advice that sounds easy but is hard to follow in real world (paying) design situations. This is a "no B.S." book from a guy who seems to LIVE for his subject.
Rating:
Summary: Highly readable and recommended
Review: Right up front, let me say that I usually find web usability books are a major pain to read. The authors normally set themselves up as "experts" and present all their opinions as undeniable facts. While you can get good information from their writings, I quickly tire of the tone of "I'm the expert". So why am I reading a book on web accessibility? Because I know it's good for me. It's a subject I don't know much about. And with this title, I was pleasantly surprised. This is a very readable book by an engaging writer, and it's a good mix of opinion, fact, standards, and practicality. It also helps that he doesn't much care for the "my opinion is fact" usability experts either. With the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act, public entities have to address the issue of making their websites accessible to various groups of disabled individuals. Clark starts off by explaining how visually-disabled, hearing-disabled, learning-disabled, and physically-disabled people use computers and the web. He then explains in entertaining fashion how each type of element in your web page can be made accessible to the different devices that are used by the disabled. The suggestions are also broken down into beginning, intermediate, and advanced techniques so that developers at all levels of experience can take positive steps towards compliance with accessibility regulations. For Notes/Domino developers, you have the same issues to deal with as do web developers on other platforms. Since Domino applications on the web are often Notes applications rendered to HTML "on the fly", it's a little more difficult to exercise the total control that other types of web page coding involve. But you do have the "HTML" tag in the property box for each design element. By using that set of properties to add accessibility tags, you can go far in designing Domino apps that are friendly to the disabled. And if you work for a public organization, you may find that you have little choice but to comply. It might be a good idea to get started on the learning curve now. Conclusion
If you are responsible for maintaining an organizational website and either have to/want to address accessibility issues, this is the book you'll want to get. Not only will you learn the "whys" of accessibilities, but you'll learn the different level of "hows". Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Highly readable and recommended
Review: Right up front, let me say that I usually find web usability books are a major pain to read. The authors normally set themselves up as "experts" and present all their opinions as undeniable facts. While you can get good information from their writings, I quickly tire of the tone of "I'm the expert". So why am I reading a book on web accessibility? Because I know it's good for me. It's a subject I don't know much about. And with this title, I was pleasantly surprised. This is a very readable book by an engaging writer, and it's a good mix of opinion, fact, standards, and practicality. It also helps that he doesn't much care for the "my opinion is fact" usability experts either. With the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act, public entities have to address the issue of making their websites accessible to various groups of disabled individuals. Clark starts off by explaining how visually-disabled, hearing-disabled, learning-disabled, and physically-disabled people use computers and the web. He then explains in entertaining fashion how each type of element in your web page can be made accessible to the different devices that are used by the disabled. The suggestions are also broken down into beginning, intermediate, and advanced techniques so that developers at all levels of experience can take positive steps towards compliance with accessibility regulations. For Notes/Domino developers, you have the same issues to deal with as do web developers on other platforms. Since Domino applications on the web are often Notes applications rendered to HTML "on the fly", it's a little more difficult to exercise the total control that other types of web page coding involve. But you do have the "HTML" tag in the property box for each design element. By using that set of properties to add accessibility tags, you can go far in designing Domino apps that are friendly to the disabled. And if you work for a public organization, you may find that you have little choice but to comply. It might be a good idea to get started on the learning curve now. Conclusion
If you are responsible for maintaining an organizational website and either have to/want to address accessibility issues, this is the book you'll want to get. Not only will you learn the "whys" of accessibilities, but you'll learn the different level of "hows". Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Highly readable and recommended
Review: Right up front, let me say that I usually find web usability books are a major pain to read. The authors normally set themselves up as "experts" and present all their opinions as undeniable facts. While you can get good information from their writings, I quickly tire of the tone of "I'm the expert". So why am I reading a book on web accessibility? Because I know it's good for me. It's a subject I don't know much about. And with this title, I was pleasantly surprised. This is a very readable book by an engaging writer, and it's a good mix of opinion, fact, standards, and practicality. It also helps that he doesn't much care for the "my opinion is fact" usability experts either. With the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act, public entities have to address the issue of making their websites accessible to various groups of disabled individuals. Clark starts off by explaining how visually-disabled, hearing-disabled, learning-disabled, and physically-disabled people use computers and the web. He then explains in entertaining fashion how each type of element in your web page can be made accessible to the different devices that are used by the disabled. The suggestions are also broken down into beginning, intermediate, and advanced techniques so that developers at all levels of experience can take positive steps towards compliance with accessibility regulations. For Notes/Domino developers, you have the same issues to deal with as do web developers on other platforms. Since Domino applications on the web are often Notes applications rendered to HTML "on the fly", it's a little more difficult to exercise the total control that other types of web page coding involve. But you do have the "HTML" tag in the property box for each design element. By using that set of properties to add accessibility tags, you can go far in designing Domino apps that are friendly to the disabled. And if you work for a public organization, you may find that you have little choice but to comply. It might be a good idea to get started on the learning curve now. Conclusion
If you are responsible for maintaining an organizational website and either have to/want to address accessibility issues, this is the book you'll want to get. Not only will you learn the "whys" of accessibilities, but you'll learn the different level of "hows". Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Tiny, tiny font
Review: This book has some wonderful information. However, I find it ironic how this book discusses accessibility and the book itself is not accessible! It is written in tiny, tiny font. I had to use a maginifying glass to read it! After struggling through a few chapters, I moved on to another book, Maximum Accessibility, with much larger font.
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