Maximum Accessibility: Making Your Web Site More Usable for Everyone [Paperback]

John M. Slatin (Author), Sharron Rush (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201774224 | ISBN-13: 978-0201774221 | Publication Date: September 30, 2002 | Edition: 1

Fifty-five million Americans live with a disability. This number is likely to increase as the population ages. The Web can be an unprecedented means of providing knowledge and economic power to people with disabilities. Because it is critically important to our society that everyone has the means to be included as producers and consumers in the information marketplace, the federal government's Access Board has issued standards for Web Accessibility, commonly referred to as Section 508. There is still a great deal of ignorance, misunderstanding, and confusion among internet professionals as to how to achieve accessibility to those with disabilities. This book will clarify and provide solutions to these problems.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Accessibility is now a legal requirement for all national government Web sites in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the European Union. Throughout the world, many other organizations--universities, schools, and private companies--are recognizing that accessibility is a moral and business imperative; many are adopting policies aimed at making Web resources accessible to the more than six hundred million people with disabilities worldwide.

Maximum Accessibility is a comprehensive resource for creating Web sites that comply with new U.S. accessibility standards and conform to the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. This book offers an overview of key issues, discusses the standards in depth, and presents practical design techniques, up-to-date technologies, and testing methods to implement these standards for maximum accessibility. You will learn how to:

• Write effective text equivalents for images and audio files
• Caption soundtracks and describe the action of videos and animation
• Set up data and layout tables that make sense to the ear and eye
• Design Web forms that people can interact with via the keyboard and other input devices
• Label forms so that people who use talking browsers can give the right information at the right time
• Make scripts accessible to people who don't use a mouse
• Create simple PDF files that are accessible to people with disabilities
• Use cascading style sheets to make your thoroughly accessible pages look great

Throughout the book, case studies illustrate how inadvertent accessibility barriers on major Web sites affect the ability of people with disabilities to locate information, participate in e-commerce, and explore the richness of the Web. These case studies demonstrate how certain design features can make access much harder, and how other features can greatly ease the use of a page or site.

Most of all, this leading-edge guide reveals that a little extra design consideration up front can help you create a site that is not only a pleasure for people with disabilities, but attractive and pleasing for all interested users. In short, Maximum Accessibility shows why good design is accessible design.

0201774224B08282002

About the Author

John M. Slatin, Ph.D., is a leader in the field of Web accessibility. He is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he founded and directs the Institute for Technology and Learning. He developed the award-winning AccessFirst Design Concept and the AccessFirst Design and Usability Studio, a consultancy that advises organizations on the accessibility of Web sites to people with disabilities.

Sharron Rush is the cofounder and Executive Director of Knowbility, a nonprofit technology education and advocacy group. Since 1998, she has produced Accessibility Internet Rallies (AIR) throughout the U.S., engaging hundreds of Web developers and their companies in accessibility issues and providing them with accessible design skills. The Peter F. Drucker Foundation, the U.S. Department of Labor, and numerous others have recognized these efforts for excellence and innovation.

0201774224AB08282002

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Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (September 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201774224
• ISBN-13: 978-0201774221
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #309,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book around on accessibility, November 25, 2003

By 

shaw6 (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maximum Accessibility: Making Your Web Site More Usable for Everyone (Paperback)

This book beats the others I've seen hands down. Not only does it explain exactly what the problems are; it also tells you how to go about fixing them, in detail, including code solutions in some places. Where there aren't solutions it presents very useful workarounds.

The W3C guidelines only take you so far. This book gets you to the next level, and helps you start thinking the right way so you can solve new problems that come up in a similar fashion.

Now, if someone would only write a book on making web sites *usable* for people with disabilities (not just accessible), we'd be laughing.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Covers the basics., June 25, 2010

By 

Jenna D. Mcclure (Eugene, OR) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Maximum Accessibility: Making Your Web Site More Usable for Everyone (Paperback)

This is definitely a helpful book to have on the bookshelf. It may not cover everything about accessibility, and it is a little dated, but still pertinent. Overall, I think that it is informative.

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent & still relevant, August 29, 2009

By 

J. Cravens (Portland, Oregon (or there abouts)) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Maximum Accessibility: Making Your Web Site More Usable for Everyone (Paperback)

Internet technologies, from back end to user-end, change by the second, and the moment a book about network communications is drafted, it's already out-of-date. But "Maximum Accessibility" remains relevant year after year. It's principles regarding accessible technology are timeless, and its detailed advice is easily adaptable to the emerging networking tech of today. Were I to write a job description for a manager or designer of an online presence of any kind, web site or otherwise, I would want every applicant to have read this book and have a copy near their desk at all times. Whether you believe in accessibility from a human rights perspective or a good business practice, "Maximum Accessibility" is the book for you. And if you *don't* understand accessibility, but want to, "Maximum Accessibility" is also the book for you.