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RE: Books on accessible website construction?

for

From: Lisa Pappas
Date: Jul 22, 2005 1:29PM


I concur with Michael's additions. I've also found two Nielsen Norman Group reports well worth the purchase:

Beyond ALT Text: Making the Web Easy to Use for Users with Disabilities
and
Web Usability for Senior Citizens

Both available at http://www.NNgroup.com/reports/accessibility. You can buy a copy & download or have a printed, comb-bound copy mailed (I opted for that because I refer to them or make them required reading in some cases).

-Lisa
===================Lisa Pappas
accessibility analyst
SAS Institute, Inc.
===================
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael D. Roush [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2005 11:01 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Books on accessible website construction?

Jan Eric Hellbusch wrote:

>>What books would you add to this list for coverage of Accessibility?
>>
>>*Joe Clark, Building Accessible Websites, New Riders, 2002,
>>ISBN:0-7357-1150-X.
>>*Jim Thatcher, et.al., Accessible Websites, Glasshaus, 2002,
>>ISBN:1-904151-00-0.
>>*Jeffrey Zeldman, Designing with Web Standards, New Riders, 2003,
>>ISBN:0-7357-1201-8.
>>*Dan Cederholm, Web Standards Solutions, Friends of ED, 2004,
>>ISBN-1-5905-9381-2.
>>
>>
To the excellent resources that have already been mentioned, let me add a couple that I have and why I like them:

WEB ACCESSIBILITY FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES by Mike Paciello. R & D (2002), ISBN: 1578201225

Perhaps somewhat 'dated', especially in the specific tips it gives for what are now obsolete wysiwyg packages, but the first-hand knowledge of so much of the basic material is still very good. And it gives a good background for where accessible design was when it was published!

Secondly, WEB DESIGN IN A NUTSHELL by Jennifer Neiderst. O'Reilly; 2nd edition (2001), ISBN: 0596001967

Even older than the Paciello book, but this one is remarkable for the fact that it is not a book specifially about accessibility. This is a reference about web design. However, one whole chapter (granted, it's only 6 pages or so, but it's something) is devoted to the topic of accessibility. I think one of the great failings of the 'accessible design crowd' is that they (we) have far too often tried to color "web design" and "accessible web design" as two completely separate subjects, thus distancing ourselves from having any voice in discussions about 'web design in general'. If this book had its way in the market, that line wouldn't exist.

Michael Roush