This book, when I got the chance to review it, had me very interested as accessibility on the Internet is one of the keys to the site redesign of KnowProSE.com with the (now delayed) new version of Drupal. Making content accessible to everyone is a really large task - so large that, sadly, many people take it for granted.

I must admit some of my own problems in reviewing this book - thus it taking so long to review. There were many false starts to the review which lead me to look into things for this site's future as well as its present accessibility. In this regard, the book was quite humbling - even for someone who thought he was sensitive to accessibility. Many times I stayed my hand from adjusting code on the site to write the review - in a way, this site - as well as many others - are not exactly poster material for a book such as this to be reviewed.

Suitably humbled and finding the weaknesses in my own sites, I trudged on and - steeling myself away from code editors - I am writing this review with the knowledge that I have much to do.

The book itself starts off with the various reasons for making content accessible to everyone; it is good business and usable sites are more likely to succeed. After the carrot comes the stick - Law is brought into the discussion after all the reasoned arguments are exhausted.

The introduction to visual, auditory, mobility, cognitive and multiple disabilities are enlightening in many regards. We all have what we believe to be a reasonable understanding of each of these disabilities, but what we may consider to be reasonable is probably not a working knowledge unless you know people with all of the disabilities who help test your sites (something mentioned in later chapters). This particular chapter is a gem - well polished, small and very useful to anyone serious about understanding the problems of accessibility.

The next chapter is also a gem - where the challenge of introducing accessibility to a project is dealt with from a team perspective. Having worked on projects where accessibility is an issue, I recognized some things. Others had me scratching my chin thoughtfully.

The rest of the book goes on to make some valuable points while allowing practical solutions. Some of these are:

• Issues of structuring content so that it is accessible.
• The trouble with tables.
• Sensible interface design.
• Pictures and color blindness.
• Guidelines for video.
• All documents are not created equal (PDF gets some mention here).
• Scripting sensibly.
• Mitigating embedded Flash and Java applications.
• Web Content Access Guidelines 1.0
• Legality: Section 508.
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
• International Issues.

These topics are covered so well that each can be a rabbit hole for a well intentioned reader; there is so much that can be done that it is easy to simply go chasing after each problem separately - something that probably isn't a good idea (trust the reviewer on this). Reading the book in its entirety and making notes as you go along is probably the best way to go.

Overall, the book is very well written and laid out - and there is a thread through all the chapters, linking them together in a manner which is intuitive and, at times, entertaining. As an advocate for accessibility, this reviewer had his hat handed to him - there is much between the covers of Design Accessible Web Sites: 36 Keys to Creating Content for All Audiences and Platforms (Pragmatic Programmers), and if you think you know it all - don't tell anyone when you buy this book. This is probably one of the most useful books on web design I have had the pleasure to review, and as a reference it should be valuable well into 2009 - though many references should be updated by then. Due to the fact that it will become outdated, it is impossible for me to give this book a 10 - so it scores a KnowProSE.com 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.

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