Rating: 
Summary: Very comprehensive, very well written and very current
Review: Briefly, an extremely well written book, and very current. If you are a web developer who's affected by section 508 of the Dissabilities act or just want to contruct web sites that are also disabled-accessible, get this book.
Rating:
Summary: Book Ensures Sites Reach for the Gold in Accessibility
Review: Don't make the same mistakes the last two official Olympic sites made with regard to accessibility.With many sites overlooking the simple ALT in images, it's no question that many need educating on this important topic. Statistics shows that 15 to 30 percent of the population has a need for accessibility features on Web sites. Happily, people live longer and aging brings seeing and hearing challenges. Furthermore, seniors are responsible for over 25 percent of online purchases, neglecting this group can be costly to the company that abandons them. The number shoots up to 40 percent when including people over the age of 40. CEOs, CIOs, C-level whatevers, managers, designers, programmers, and anyone else who has a hand in a Web site will benefit from the book. Not only does it cover the how, but also the whats and whys by saying, "This is why we should do this and this is how to do it." Upper level management benefit from information on the Web accessibility laws, guidelines, reasons for creating accessible sites, and the accessibility organization strategy. If an executive wants to reach far and wide, then she can get that by reading and applying the knowledge found in the book. One unique chapter explains how to structure an organization to handle and support accessibility issues, a rarely addressed topic in the world of Web accessibility. The Internet has opened the gates for businesses to go global and there's information about the laws from countries other than the US. Designers and programmers get the tools and resources for creating, evaluating, and validating pages for accessibility compliance. Useful is a comparison and report card on Web design software explaining how each program meets or fails to meet in producing accessible code and features. The book echoes the latest cry in the world of Web design in encouraging designers to separate content from presentation. Having an accessible Web site doesn't mean boring looking pages with nothing but text. Quite the contrary, the authors encourage creating well-design sites while keeping accessibility in mind. As one who has written articles on Web design, the book offers insight into techniques that I hadn't encountered. With multiple authors, readers are assured they're hearing from the experts on each chapter topic. One notable expert is Bob Regan of Macromedia who discusses the tools and techniques of using Flash MX to make a site accessible. Any site that wants to be successful and reach the greatest number of people will invest in creating an accessible site. This well-rounded book covers it all from laws to code to help ensure the site does it right.
Rating:
Summary: Very Impressive!
Review: I came into this book with some experience of commercial web programming and a knowledge of H.C.I, so I realised that it is important to make information on the web accessible to all, but had little idea on where to start. In the first pages I learnt something new about alt text for images, and realised that this book was going to teach me a lot of essential things about making web sites accessible!
It starts with an insight into the legal area of accessibility and moves on to look at common myths such as having a text only alternative to a site. Then it shows you how you can present your content, navigation and data input in the most assessable way, and then shows you ways on how you test your site, making sure everyone can enjoy your online efforts!
What I love about this book is the explanation behind it. Not only does it show you the practices, it backs them up with clear and concise reasons on why these techniques can make your web site easy to use for anyone, including those who may have disabilities. It is a major eye opener and it will be a book that sits on my desk day in, day out, whilst I program web sites. I can't recommend it highly enough, and it is an absolute must read for all those who program on the web and those who use the web to display and gather information."
Rating:
Summary: What a great book
Review: I don't usually come it the "lyrical type", but to find such a worthwhile book on such a worthwhile topic is a breath of fresh air! Above all else, it offers practical advice on how to actually do the right thing. Unlike certain titles with animals on their covers, there's more here than just reams and reams of tables containing cut-and-pastes from the man pages on the subject. It's also of a nice size. (I know that would be no recommendation, if the book didn't actually teach you anything, but it does - and you don't feel intimidated, like you can when you pick up some dirty great Red tome from a Certain OtherPublisher.) You feel as if the subject is managable. Knowable. It may be just me, but if a book is smaller than my own head, I generally feel that there's an outside chance I may be able to fit the contents inside my own skull! I'll have to keep an eye open for these blue things... they're quite good.
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic book
Review: Of the books and resources that I've read on accessible web sites, this is by far the best - especially from a UK perspective. The main UK legislation that specifically mentions web sites and accessibility comes into force in October 2004 which, at the time of writing this, is still over two years away. This means that there isn't a great deal of information and certainly no legal cases that we can draw on from our country, so we have to look elsewhere to see what is happening. This book benefits in that, although it does cover Section 508 and other already in place legislation, it also gives a great all round understanding of the topic, and is very easy to read. Having chapters written by different authors means that you get a far greater depth of experience and information, which can only benefit the reader. If you're going to buy one book on accessible web sites, this should be at the top of your shopping list.
Rating:
Summary: Guiding hand to accessibility
Review: The GlassHaus "Constructing Accessible Web Sites" book has been a great find. I began working to build sites and applications for use in Web browsers that had to be used by individuals with disabilities in 1997. Over these years I picked up a lot of hard won knowledge and experience, but have never run across a resource that fully backed what I had gathered. The GlasHaus Accessibility book not only echoes what I have learned, but has provided new insights to improve upon what I already have. The best part of this book is that I can point others to it and I am assured they will be able to build an accessible site or Web applications that can meet high standards. Many folks think accessibility is a great inconvenience, but it takes a little thinking and planning to do it right from the beginning. Having a great resource at hand makes the process a cake walk. Not only are the processes and guides helpful for creating sites that are accessible for those that are disabled these steps outlined also make the information in the site future ready. Sites that are accessible are much easier to use with a handheld PDA device or from even a cell phone browser. Accessibility for everybody in more situations improves with structuring the information properly, which is all making Web enabled information really requires to get it ready to be consumed. Is your information ready to be consumed by everybody?
Rating:
Summary: Guiding hand to accessibility
Review: The GlassHaus "Constructing Accessible Web Sites" book has been a great find. I began working to build sites and applications for use in Web browsers that had to be used by individuals with disabilities in 1997. Over these years I picked up a lot of hard won knowledge and experience, but have never run across a resource that fully backed what I had gathered. The GlasHaus Accessibility book not only echoes what I have learned, but has provided new insights to improve upon what I already have. The best part of this book is that I can point others to it and I am assured they will be able to build an accessible site or Web applications that can meet high standards. Many folks think accessibility is a great inconvenience, but it takes a little thinking and planning to do it right from the beginning. Having a great resource at hand makes the process a cake walk. Not only are the processes and guides helpful for creating sites that are accessible for those that are disabled these steps outlined also make the information in the site future ready. Sites that are accessible are much easier to use with a handheld PDA device or from even a cell phone browser. Accessibility for everybody in more situations improves with structuring the information properly, which is all making Web enabled information really requires to get it ready to be consumed. Is your information ready to be consumed by everybody?
Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive and Current
Review: This book addresses a pressing need in the increasingly complex world of the Web: accessibility. From 15 to 30% of the general population has some functional limitation when using technology products. Nearly 10% of Internet users have a disability of some kind. That's tens of millions of people in the US and hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Seniors are joining the online throng in droves. All these numbers mean that addressing Web site accessibility issues is no longer an option, it's a necessity. But accessibility is not just about following standards and adding ALT tags. Everybody has the right to information on the Web, regardless of disability, location, language, or any other factor. This "access for all" viewpoint requires a different approach than the last-minute band-aid accessibility we've seen in the past. This book shows you how to integrate accessibility into your design process to improve your bottom line. As Vint Cerf said recently, "The Internet is for Everybody." This book is a team effort, written by a cast of eight experts, including Bob Regan of Macromedia. Regan, Senior Product Manager for Accessibility, talks about the new accessibility features of Flash MX, which was just released recently. Each author addresses topics in their areas of expertise. Glasshaus has got the formula down now, hire a bunch of experts, and crank out a book in record time. Everything from legal issues, assistive technology, accessible content, navigation, and data input to testing for Section 508 compliance are covered in this 415 page book. The authors rate Web development tools for compliance with the W3C's ATAG guidelines on a star system. While Dreamweaver MX, Frontpage, Golive, and BBEdit have improved, they still have a ways to go. The authors show you how to separate content from presentation with CSS, and test your code for standards and accessibility compliance. You'll learn how to assess and repair accessibility problems on your site with free evaluation and fix-up tools. Finally, the book closes with an in-depth chapter on US Web accessibility law.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a must-have
Review: This book is a must-have for anyone who needs to design to accessibility standards - and these days, who doesn't?
Rating:
Summary: Enlightening
Review: This book was a real eye-opener for me. As someone who has a great interest in usability issues, I was surpirsed how little I knew about accessibility. To be honest, I suspect the most web designers/programmers are in the same boat. How often do we construct sites taking into account users with visual deficiencies? Not very often I suspect. And shame on us, because as this book shows it's not difficult. It may even be a legal requirement, as we see from the chapters that explain the legal issues in not provide an accessible site - it could be very expensive. These legal issues may scare some site designers, but in reality it's the moral issue that's at stake. We should be ashamed for excluding, or making it difficult for, people access to sites when they can't use the standard browsers. Buy this book now - it's enlightening.
| 
