It used to be that one of my biggest frustrations when I spoke with other web developers about accessibility was the inevitable question “What book should I look at to learn about this stuff?” I never had a response that I was completely comfortable with giving, so I wrote one. Design Accessible Web Sites: 36 Keys to Creating Content for All Audiences and Platforms is a different type of accessibility book, written for real web developers with real projects to get done.

In this book, we’re not going to spend all of our time looking at reams of guidelines that are written for accessibility experts instead of for developers. Instead, I’ll introduce some basic principles for accessible development and we’ll look at how you can put them into action. Because a lot of people out there talk in terms of the guidelines, we’ll look at them enough to be comfortable using them for testing and to talk about them when they come up.

I’m also not going to tell you that you're an evil person for liking web pages that don't have visual appeal. I'm not about making the world worse for the non-disabled—I want the best possible results for all of our users and we're going to look at how we can provide images, video, Flash and PDF in a way that is both accessible and aesthetically pleasing.

Praise for Design Accessible Web Sites

• I did an interview for DZone's usability zone with Schalk Neethling. He asks several interesting questions about Design Accessible Web Sites, the principles of accessibility, not getting WET, and the future of web accessibility.
• I join Paige Eissinger and Dr. Kathy King in Transformation Ed Episode 12 to talk more about Design Accessible Web Sites, a few essential tools for the newly accessible web developer, and basic accessibility features on the desktop
• Paige Eissinger discusses the book briefly with Dr. Kathy King in Transformation Ed Episode 11 I didn't know about this podcast until recently, but it syncs up with a few of my major interest areas and I want to listen in on the old episodes and keep up with the new ones.
• NosillaCast #135 is a full half hour discussion between Allison Sheridan and Paige Eissinger about DAWS. I don't know where to start with this one—Paige and Allison's praise of the book was enough to make me turn pink for most of the afternoon!
• Roger Johannsson at 456 Berea St gives DAWS a high recommendation, saying “There is not a lot of pedantery and preaching and ‘you must follow these guidelines exactly, or else’. Instead, the author focuses on the end result - if doing this or that actually makes the site more accessible. And in the end that is a lot more important than ticking boxes in a checklist.”
• Weblabor's Török Gábor gives DAWS a 9/10, but I can't tell you much more than that because I can't read Hungarian— If you can, and would be willing to translate, please let me know!
• Ask Felgall's Stephen Chapman says “This Book provides both an ideal introduction to accessibility as well as a central reference to all of the different aspects of accessibility that you need to take into account when designing a web site.”
• Cyber Aspect's Julie Smyth says “I'm happy to give this book a double thumbs up. It is well written, enjoyable to read and contains so much helpful information, it's hard to list it all here.”
• SDTimes listed DAWS as one of ten titles “to expand one's view of IT”
• James Pyles says at Tech Unity—“Sydik uses his writing style as well as his considerable experience in both computer science and cognitive psychology to present a unique perspective on this classic design issue and present it in an interesting and fun way. In an ideal sense, learning should be fun. Many times it's not, usually due to how the information is presented more than the information itself. This book teaches a topic all serious web designers should be well versed in and lets you enjoy the learning at the same time.”
• CMS Wire says “The book intentionally avoids the nitty gritty details of W3C guidelines and rather lets the reader discover that making accessible sites need not be an ugly mandate, but rather a very humanistic approach to design. After all, no matter our ability, we all want a positive experience on the web.”
• KnowProSE gives me a 9/10—“Jeremy Sydik did his time in the accessibility mines of the web and came up with a mother lode for the rest of us to enjoy.”
• Web Teacher gave the book a 4 of 5, saying they particularly like the ten principles for web accessibility.
• Techtalk Radio mentioned DAWS in their 11/25 podcast.
• A podcast conversation between myself and my editor, Susannah Davidson Pfalzer is available from the Pragmatic Bookshelf site and, if you can't or don't want to listen to the MP3, we also have a transcript of the podcast available.