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Reviewer: Will Wallace

Courts have begun to rule, in the US and abroad, that Web accessibility is a civil right for all people. Since Web accessibility is the topic of this book, it is a must-read for anyone working in, or with, federal, state, or local governments. Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is being applied by US federal enforcement agencies (for example, the US Department of Justice) to online businesses and institutions. Businesses and institutions, especially academic institutions, can no longer wait to receive a specific request to provide information in an alternate format; they must ensure they are providing what is referred to as effective communication. Effective communication has three basic components, according to the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in the US Department of Education. These are: timeliness of delivery, accuracy of the translation, and provision in a manner and medium appropriate to the significance of the message, and the abilities of the individual with the disability [1]. Waddell is the author of the two chapters on Web accessibility law, the most readable chapters in the book. It is her opinion that Web design technologists do not need to delve into the complexity of Web accessibility laws. However, Web professionals can be held responsible for not meeting the requirements set out by the laws; ignorance of the law is no excuse. Waddell was the ADA Compliance Officer for the city of San Jose, California when she wrote the City of San Jose Web Page Disability Access Design Standard in June 1996. This standard became the basis for many, if not most, of the Web accessibility standards today. The book contains valuable information for anyone unfamiliar with assistive and adaptive technology. Thatcher is the author of five chapters focused on assistive and adaptive technology. Thatcher retired from IBM after a 37-year career, during which he received numerous awards for his technical work in the area of accessibility. The chapters on assistive and adaptive technology provide examples of how the three most used accessibility software products will present Web page information. The most popular screen readers are JAWS for Windows (by Freedom Scientific, http://www.freedomscientific.com), and Window-Eyes (by GW Micro, http://www.gwmicro.com). IBM (http://www.ibm.com) has the most commonly used voice browser, Home Page Reader (HPR). Demo versions of all three programs are available online. For Web developers, or companies without the resources to purchase this technology, the Lynx text browser can be downloaded for free (http://lynx.browser.org). Developers and testers can use Lynx to get an idea of how their Web pages will be processed by a screen reader or voice browser. Thatcher devotes a chapter to testing for compliance with Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act. Software is available to automate testing of Web sites, but a human is still needed to check the pages and to make the final decision on how to handle issues flagged by the software. One verification tool, Bobby, checks for compliance with Section 508 or with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG) from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Individual Web pages can be checked from the Bobby Web page (http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp) for free, with a one page per minute limit. The program can also be purchased. There are some accessibility experts that recommend avoiding the use of Bobby. A free accessibility verifier, A-Prompt, is available from the University of Toronto (http://aprompt.snow.utoronto.ca/). It was developed in conjunction with the TRACE center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It uses the accessibility guidelines from the W3C to provide an evaluation and repair checklist. A chapter on Web development tools and accessibility provides an analysis of various Web authoring tools, and rates them on their ability to assist developers in making Web pages accessible. The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines from the W3C were used in the assessment. Regan, the product manager for accessibility at Macromedia, discusses techniques to make Flash content accessible. Flash Player 6 makes Flash movies created in Flash 4 and 5 available to screen readers. A brief chapter on emerging technologies provides a quick look at what is on the horizon for the Web. The book ends with three appendices and a very thorough index. The appendix containing the glossary of terms is good, but would be better if it included acronyms. If you are looking for a book on Web accessibility law in the US, this is an excellent choice. If you are looking for technical details on how to construct an accessible Web site, keep looking. I recommend Building accessible Websites [2].