RE: Call for Book Reviews: Accessibility Books

David asks a relevant question:  why were the two books mentioned in my
last post chosen for reviewing?  To be frank, there was no reason other
than the fact that they are recent books that came across my desk.  The
Bulletin book reviews column has no lofty aims to review only the
definitive books in a field, because that is always a contentious
matter.  Rather, we are content to deal with recent books that I as
editor come across, or other books that our membership proposes.

If anyone has proposals for other books to be reviewed, these proposals
(along with an offer to review!) are most welcome.  

Also, if Judy Brewer or any other WAI staff would like to do a review
for us, that would be most welcome.  However, I expect there is plenty
of other relevant expertise out there can also be profitably applied to
reviewing.

Finally, the name of the game is neither to find impartial, nor expert
reviewers.  Rather, it is to find people who are good at communicating
the relevance of a book given their own context, biases, and expertise.
It can be just as significant to have clearly articulated how effective
established literature is in communicating to beginners as it is to have
an authority in a field incisively critique the theory of a book.
Therefore I require only that reviews be clear and coherent, and that
the reviewer didn't come to the review with a conceptual axe to grind.

As a member of the user interface design community, I have come to this
list looking for accessibility expertise which I can't find easily
elsewhere.  I also come as a friend, because I know that our communities
have a great deal to contribute to one another.

I hope that helps; thanks for raising these points.  

Best regards,
-Gerard

Received on Friday, 18 October 2002 07:25:37 UTC