(Book Review) Accessibility for Everyone, 1st Edition

Overview

Review Published: March, 2019.

From UX designer, speaker, and accessibility advocate Laura Kalbag comes a detailed introduction to web accessibility.

From defining accessibility and its value to a broader range of users, to working through the technical requirements and legal guidelines that steer project efforts, this book serves as comprehensive primer for those getting started with web-based accessibility.

Rating:

4 / 5

(Great Content, Presentation is Clear)

What does this score mean?

Difficulty:

Intermediate (Some knowledge of UX design methods & web development is needed).

Length:

166 pages.

Where to Buy It:

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What's Good

A comprehensive introduction; starting off by defining and understanding the goals of web accessibility and the value derived from it, the author moves on to specifics about how to make your solution as accessible as possible both in terms of design and technical considerations.
Lots of sources & further reading; additional resources are plentiful and well organized, so readers can quickly look up where to go next by specific accessibility topic (i.e. design, content, code, assistive technologies, etc.).
Easily accessible; the author does a wonderful job of keeping sometimes challenging subject matter as approachable as possible by using a conversational tone, and plenty of relatable examples.

What Can Be Improved

A few missed opportunities; while not a serious issue, there are a few instances where the author doesn’t take advantage of opportunities to provide further reading and guidance on a topic (i.e. SEO/accessibility integration, PDF accessibility, etc.), and plugging these gaps would make for a great 2nd edition.
Some minor inconsistencies; on occasion some approaches/techniques are not as clear as they could be, and a few included links in the text don’t work (but conducting a search using the author and/or title provided solves this).

The Bottom Line

A critical first-step for learning about accessibility; while there are lots of great books on web accessibility, this one strikes a great balance between brevity and depth of content to create a great starting point for anyone looking to get into web accessibility.
For beginner-to-intermediate designers, developers, and project managers to create more streamlined solutions; apart from making your products accessible to people with disabilities (which should be important enough), this book shows you how to make more streamlined solutions that are naturally user and SEO-friendly for all users.
A great value for the price; the benefits of this book far outweigh any minor shortcomings, and for the amount of quality content you get, the $15 price tag (for the eBook version) is easily worth it.