[...]... used to having control over their consumer environment, and there is no reason to expect this to change as they reach retirement age They will be expecting our sites to cater to their needs and they represent a large enough market that it would be unwise to disappoint them The market for accessible web content and services is out there and growing These are our potential readers and customers to the... best of both worlds Content that is made accessible for users with disabilities is usually well on the way to being ready for multiple platforms and browsers as well Getting to Know Each Other This book is about learning to apply accessibility principles to your web development practices In other words, if you have anything to do with building web sites, there’s something here for you You could be... you do it What G ETTING TO K NOW E ACH O THER I really needed was information on what being accessible means and how to think from the perspectives of many kinds of users Accessibility for the web is about designing content to be reachable by the largest number of users possible There are a lot of ways to be accessible Content can be accessible from a variety of hardware platforms or browsers Accessibility... between content and presentation 9 Progressively enhance your basic content by adding extra features Allow it to degrade gracefully for users who can’t or don’t wish to use them 10 As you encounter new web technologies, apply these same principles when making them accessible 16 P RINCIPLES B EFORE G UIDELINES These principles apply to just about everything you’ll need to do to design accessible sites. .. is a good thing in Chapter 1, Why Be Accessible? , on page 19 After that, it’s down to business I also won’t be ripping apart good visual design Great visual design is an important element of the web and I welcome every designer who wants to add accessibility to their toolbox to come along—there’s plenty of information here for you as well Finally, I’m not going to focus primarily on accessibility guidelines... grandparents, and the rest of my family for their faith and prayers for this project and their understanding when I sometimes nodded off on a couch at family gatherings For every blessing that I have received, for giving me strength along this path, and for all things, I thank God The difference between journeying and being lost is knowing where home is I want to thank you Kate You’ve been my editor,... reasons why you should want to do this There are plenty of good reasons to build accessible content Some, like legal requirements, aren’t terribly pleasant to think about Others, like opening your sites to new markets and increasing your skill set are more exciting to pursue By the end of this chapter, you will be able to understand what your reasons for developing accessible web content are With that in... in mind, lets look at some benefits of understanding accessible web development 1.1 It’s the Right Thing to Do While the web was originally designed for scientific communication, it was rapidly adopted as a new form of publishing with the promise to be wide-reaching and open to everyone As web developers, we haven’t always lived up to this promise, however As web technologies grew in complexity, many features... a designer, a developer, an author, or an artist (Take a look at Making a Team Effort, on page 37 to see how different people fit into the accessibility process) I’ve written information that will be useful for anyone who wants to produce accessible web sites You might want to do this because you believe it’s the right thing to do, because you know it’ll make your sites more portable to different platforms, ... static and streamed multimedia content; the rise, fall, and return of push type technologies; and countless web plugins and frameworks I am assuming that, for most of you, accessibility feels like just another one of these changes to cope with I’m not going to tell you that designing accessible web pages won’t change the way you need to develop, but I can promise that the changes you’ll need to make . Thank you for taking part in this experiment. Andy and Dave Des ign Accessible Web Sites Thirty-Six Keys to Creating Content for All Audiences and Platforms Jeremy. unwise to disappoint th em. The market for accessible web content and services is out there and growing. These are our potential readers and customers to the