Customer Reviews

Access by Design: A Guide to Universal Usability for Web Designers

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Access by Design doesn't waste time or words getting right to the point: accessible Web design isn't about those who have an impairment, but rather about everyone using the Web. Access, by Sarah Horton's definition, is the goal of every visitor to a site, and a designer achieves this goal for visitors by ensuring that nothing in a site is tied to a restrictive approach.

The fad of rendering type and using Flash for menus has gone mostly away, thankfully. Horton's guide shows how to accomplish something that looks good, works correctly, and can be used by practically everyone from those with the fanciest equipment and highest-speed broadband connection to villagers in a remote town in Africa (or America) to visually impaired readers relying on software that reads them page elements.

Access by Design is organized into tight, well-constructed chapters each of which focuses on a key area of design, such as forms, color, and layout.

Those who work under the requirements of U.S. government law for accessibility Web sites and those who want to build sites that everyone can effectively use would find this book a useful addition to the library. It's a quick read, but also a reference guide you'll refer to over and over again.

Title: Access by Design
Author: Sarah Horton
Publisher: New Riders
ISBN: 0-321-31140-X
Reviewer: Sam Wilson
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

"Access by Design" by Sarah Horton is valuable and worthwhile because it nicely exposes the genetic link of accessibility to its more popular cousins -- functionality and usability. Accessibility is one of the most touted yet often underutilized tools in the web worker's repertoire. Misperceived as only a tool for reaching the hearing or visually impaired audience and doomed to the "nice to have" list on many projects, accessible design too often takes a back seat to design relying heavily on images and sophisticated layout.

The approach of Sarah Horton's book is appropriately to make the concepts of accessibility accessible to the web workers whose opportunity it is to make their work maximally digestible. Each essential element of a site's guts is discussed first in theory then in practice. Color, text, structure; HTML specific elements like lists, tables, and forms ... are aptly discussed in their shades of underlying purpose and then explored and elucidated with germane examples both good and bad. These examples particularly make the book fun if only just to flip through. Refreshingly the author takes on the likes of Microsoft and Audible.com, using the razor of analysis and good taste to dissect her specimens and demonstrate attractive graphic design and good web design are not necessarily the same thing.

In conclusion, I highly recommend "Access by Design" on the merits of its conscientious but practical promotion of accessibility combined with its focus on functionality and usability. The timely arrival of well-written books like Horton's builds on the rising tide of Web 2.0 attention. The oh-so-two-oh design goals of taming the wily information wilderness--transforming clutter into neat packets of visually appealing and streamlined content--can sometimes seem a bit overdone to many. "Access by Design" does not come across preachy or pedantic. I would challenge any web developer or artist (as I have challenged myself) to investigate the practical advice found in solid works like this one. It's time we understood accessibility's benefits to not just the visually and hearing impaired, but its benefits for everyone who reads, views, interacts with or otherwise enjoys the web browsing.

I've read every book I can find on web site accessibility, and this is my favorite. Sarah Horton does a superb job of explaining the "what" and "why" of good web design principles. If we adhere to these principles, our web sites will be usable and accessible for everyone, regardless of disability or the device they use to access the web. This book is clear, concise, and to the point, and, in my opinion, a must read for all professional web designers!

The information is great, and she has a unique angle, but I would like to see a second edition that is about 1/3 the length. Much of the content is repeated many times over and it could be condensed and re-organized.

Buy this with Don't Make Me Think to round out your knowledge.

I recomend for interaction designers, not for web designers only, but for anybody in digital medium.

Title: Access by Design
Author: Sarah Horton
Publisher: New Riders
ISBN: 0-321-31140-X
Pages: 264 pages
Reviewer: Sam Wilson
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

"Access by Design" by Sarah Horton is valuable and worthwhile because it nicely exposes the genetic link of accessibility to its more popular cousins - functionality and usability. Accessibility is one of the most touted yet often underutilized tools in the web worker's repertoire. Misperceived as only a tool for reaching the hearing or visually impaired audience and doomed to the "nice to have" list on many projects, accessible design too often takes a back seat to design relying heavily on images and sophisticated layout.

The approach of Sarah Horton's book is appropriately to make the concepts of accessibility accessible to the web workers whose opportunity it is to make their work maximally digestible. Each essential element of a site's guts is discussed first in theory then in practice. Color, text, structure; HTML specific elements like lists, tables, and forms... are aptly discussed in their shades of underlying purpose and then explored and elucidated with germane examples both good and bad. These examples particularly make the book fun if only just to flip through. Refreshingly the author takes on the likes of Microsoft and Audible.com, using the razor of analysis and good taste to dissect her specimens and demonstrate attractive graphic design and good web design are not necessarily the same thing.

In conclusion, I highly recommend "Access by Design" on the merits of its conscientious but practical promotion of accessibility combined with its focus on functionality and usability. The timely arrival of well-written books like Horton's builds on the rising tide of Web 2.0 attention. The oh-so-two-oh design goals of taming the wily information wilderness - transforming clutter into neat packets of visually appealing and streamlined content - can sometimes seem a bit overdone to many. "Access by Design" does not come across preachy or pedantic. I would challenge any web developer or artist (as I have challenged myself) to investigate the practical advice found in solid works like this one. It's time we understood accessibility's benefits to not just the visually and hearing impaired, but its benefits for everyone who reads, views, interacts with or otherwise enjoys the web browsing.