A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences

by Sarah Horton, Whitney Quesenbery, Aaron Gustafson (Foreword)

If you are in charge of the user experience, development, or strategy for a web site, A Web for Everyone will help you make your site accessible without sacrificing design or innovation. Rooted in universal design principles, this book provides practical advice and examples of how to create sites that everyone can use.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Website Design, Professional Development, Technology, Web, Programming

289 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 16, 2013

Reviews

[Tim Kadlec · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book on the topic that I've read that I felt did a good job of presenting accessibility not as a list of bulletpoints to check off, but as a way of *thinking* about how you build your site. Whenever anyone is looking to get started in accessibility, this is where I'm going to point them.

[Tyrone Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm working on an accessibility remediation project and I bought this in advance of the project's kickoff. It added some valuable context to some personas that I didn't think about before, and that is critical. The ideas presented helped me to reframe my thinking about the audiences I'm trying to serve. It's not too technical of a book, but that's fine.

[Marcela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overall resource for learning about accessibility. I was initially worried when seeing older-looking websites featured and seeing the 2013 publication date but the information still seemed up-to-date. It started off very UX oriented, with personas that we see scattered throughout the book from people with a variety of different disabilities, ages and literacy levels. Certain chapters got more into the code, content or design aspects. I learned a fair amount and was able to get through the book in only a few hours with plenty of references if I want to dig deeper.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not even halfway through this book, and I'm already sorry I didn't pick it up sooner. I'm really enjoying the way it frames web accessibility. It does so in a non-judgmental way, and it provides extensive detail. As a web developer, this is a handy reference to keep on your desk, and I've already added it to the stack of things that I keep open while I work throughout the day, as well as on personal projects.

[Brian]

It's no page-turner but it's full of very useful information and resources.

[Kaia]

I've decided to stop rating books I read for grad school, but this was a very good book. It takes a holistic view of web design, accessibility, and usability.

[Douglas Summers-Stay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical advice and motivation for designing handicap-accessible webpages. The book felt more like a printed website than a book, the way it was laid out and used so many subheadings and bullets. It was 100-something pages long but felt much shorter.
All children, all non-English speakers, all ESL learners, everyone with limited reading ability, all busy or distracted people-- in other words, everyone-- benefits from web design that is easy to read, straightforward, clear, and shows what to do next.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to digest, presents a good framework that is more approachable than the comprehensive WCAG guidelines, and argues for a universal design approach that goes beyond 'box-checking' accessible practices.

Some of the examples are a bit out-of-date but largely still relevant. In some instances, more given examples (especially around the coding practices) would have helped to concretise some of the abstract ideas that were breezed over.

[Martin Danko · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has changed the way how I think about websites, apps, etc. in general... usability vs accessibility, must-read for all UX guys, PMs, developers and graphic designers too!
And I love also the technology progress in this regarding during the last decades. We should always think about the accessibility, not just about the nice design, time to shift, and level-up our work :)

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovingly thorough look at making accessibility part of how we think. Though examples are (naturally) getting a bit dated, this is essential for both technicians and evangelists alike. Here's hoping Sarah and Whitney are working on their second edition. Who is responsible for web accessibility? We all are!

[sarah semark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straightforward, friendly, and a surprisingly accessible introduction to what can sometimes feel like a super dry topic. I still feel out of my depth with some of the more technical aspects of accessibility, but I feel I'm better armed to teach myself what I don't know, and to consider accessibility from the outset of a design project.

[Arnold Saputra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bukunya bagus dan relevan banget buat di baca semua PM, Designer, researcher & developer. Accessibility yg lebih baik artinya bisnis lebih lancar. Jgn pikir ini hanya untuk orang yang berkebutuhan khusus saja tapi, ini juga baik untuk semua orang.

[Scot · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a terrific resource! I love the reasoning and guidance offered in this book. And the authors structured the guidance in such a way that I can point to pages for clear action. Absolutely brilliant.

[Marek Kędzierski · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a collection of generalities and truisms. I feel reading it as a waste of time. I wouldn't be able to point out even 1 specific new thing I learned from it.

I wouldn't even recommend this book to someone wanting to just get into the topic of accessibility.

[Gena Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book to get designers to understand the issues assistive technology can have with web accessibility.

[Jedi Lin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The content of this book is excellent. Too pity the layout of its Kindle Edition is quite bad.

[Alexander Debkaliuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

An essential read on accessibility. Practical, multi-faceted. Great resource for designers and technologists.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5. Excellent book for designers and writers of digital content of all types. It’s encouraging to see the future she calls for just a few years ago is much more mainstream.

[Tiger Abrodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a must-read book for anyone who truly wants to build and design User Experiences for everyone!

[Mónica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful for beginners

[Christina Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

The examples are pretty dated now, but the logic is still solid

[Courtney Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This would be a good book as an introduction to web accessibility. As it was, it felt very basic and I was already extremely familiar with all the concepts put forward in this book.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good info but mind-numbingly bad writing. Unclear, poorly sorted, doesn’t employ the design or content standards it preaches.

[Stephen Rynkiewicz]

As a web designer you give each use case a name and a backstory. You imagine what users do not only on your website but the rest of the time too. That makes them more interesting cases for your clients to consider. The genius of this book is to suggest personas with typical hearing, vision, cognition and mobility challenges. How typical? I've had only one legally blind co-worker, but it's pretty common for me to see everyone at the conference table staring back behind thick glasses. The difference is only in degree, and to my mind the extreme cases are the most helpful in thinking through an issue. SEO helps everyone, but especially the googlebot. Not everyone reading my website is going to be impaired, but on Friday night, who knows? (Come on. You read the message boards.) So here's a primer on accessibility issues that gives you a way of thinking more broadly about good design. Feel free to dial down what you share with your project team. Your audience may be simply hurried or distracted. Just the same, if GrubHub doesn't include a drunken-diner persona on its web projects, it's missing a bet.

[Kimm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a valuable resource for web designers, developers and content creators who want to integrate WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) into their work. Stories from disabled web users and industry experts about their experiences with web accessibility bring a strong people focus to the extensive technical content the book provides. There are a few small publishing issues with the Kindle version; broken images and headers appearing at the bottom of a page separated from their content that will hopefully be fixed in future ebook editions. Aside from that I found the book a very worthwhile, informative read well deserving of 5 stars.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Accessibility at the level I want is hard to find, and I still haven't really found it. But this book has so far been the most up to date and definitive for understanding accessibility at many levels (just not the really technical ones). Anyone in the web industry, regardless of how minor a role it is, should read this.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book about accessibility. Unfortunately it's very UI focussed. For the limited amount of actual controls-on-page UI work I do it didn't suit. I stopped reading for something else from the publisher.

[Lynn McCormack]

This is a great book for thinking about all users and UDL when designing and developing technology.