Universal Design for Web Applications teaches you how to build websites that are more accessible to people with disabilities and explains why doing so is good business. It takes more work up front, but the potential payoff is huge -- especially when mobile users need to access your sites. You'll discover how to use standards-based web technologies -- such as XHTML, CSS, and Ajax, along with video and Flash -- to develop applications for a wide range of users and a variety of devices, including the mobile Web. You'll also learn specifics about this target audience, especially the key over-50 age group, whose use of the Web is rapidly growing. With this book, you will:

• Learn the importance of metadata and how it affects images, headings, and other design elements

• Build forms that accommodate cell phones, screen readers, word prediction, and more

• Create designs using color and text that are effective in a variety of situations

• Construct tables that present information without spatial cues

• Design Ajax-driven social networking applications that people with disabilities can access

• Provide audio with transcriptions and video that includes captions and audio descriptions

• Discover assistive technology support for Rich Internet Application technologies such as Flash, Flex, and Silverlight

Universal Design for Web Applications provides you with a roadmap to help you design easy-to-maintain web applications that benefit a larger audience.

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Complete Overview of Universal Design for Accessibility - 2009-12-22
Reviewer Rating:
Universal Design for Web Applications: Web Applications That Reach Everyone covers all of the latest techniques and related standards for designing universally accessible websites. The text gives a very broad and complete overview with references for taking a deeper dive into any particular area. Up-to-date coverage mentions AJAX, RIA(rich internet applications), SilverLight, Flex, and JavaFX but very superficially since the goal of this book is to inform and guide you in creating highly accessible web content. Code snippets displaying XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript help demonstrate the discussed techniques. Topics include: proper use of CSS, semantic HTML, and Javascript; alternate text for images, links, and labels; captioning for audio and video; functional descriptions for images used as buttons; and how to structure menus to allow for proper tabbing and hot-keys. Additional items include coverage of screen readers, screen magnifiers, and comparison to using mobile devices such as phones which produce a very challenging environment for accessible designs. Also included is a list of tools for inspecting, reporting, and evaluating your designs for accessibility. I recommend Universal Design if you're looking for a complete guide to creating very accessible web designs. Keep in mind that in order to take full advantage of the this book you will also need good references for whatever tools/languages you are using to design/create your website such as CSS, XHTML, JavaScript, Flex, etc.

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Internet/Online

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Internet/Online > Web Design
Internet/Online > Web Development
Internet/Online > Usability