Mr Sydik, the author, had me at hello with this book because he started with a joke, always a good ploy to catch my attention, so I started to read avidly. I loved the easy way his words flowed and was impressed once or twice in the first two pages. For example, "Web content is often referred to in terms of places such as sites, home pages, stores and so on. That works fine - if we're building places, we can look at our users as visitors or, better yet, as guests. With that in mind, we'll look at the concepts in this book in terms of building these places."



He then goes on to list the Chapters:

• Laying the Foundations
  why is accessibility important, how do we start?
• Building a solid structure
  Looking at semantics, markup and styles in an accessible way
• Getting the perfect view
  alternative information for accessibility
• Putting on some additions
  plug-ins, scripts, external documents accessibility principles
• Understanding the Building Codes
  Looking at standards and testing procedures

Simple, easy to follow Chapters which cover all concepts of accessibility in theory. And, we're not just talking about different hardware platforms or different browsers ... the main focus of this book is about accessibility for people with a wide range of physical, mental, and sensory abilities. Again from the author "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." So, designing for the lowest common denominator perhaps automatically gives us design standards ... sounds like a win-win situation to me. The fact that websites designed in this fashion don't have to be ugly but can contain beautiful graphics, sounds and movement was also good news for someone in my profession. I read on avidly.

Because we're in the midst of Web 2.0 and the glamour and glitz of RIAs this book is worth purchasing because it shows that there is no need to leave behind those with special needs ... it just requires a bit of extra planning. There are murky and strict legal issues with accessbility and Mr Sydik oftens cuts to the chase and gives up alot of information. Probably more than you'll need if you live outside the US but nevertheless it is mostly all there.

I'm happy to give this book a double thumbs up. It is well written, enjoyable to read and contains so much helpful information, it's hard to list it all here.