Re: Joe Clark book review from pcpro

----- Original Message -----
From: "Access Systems" <accessys@smart.net>

> On Sat, 1 Mar 2003, Jonathan Chetwynd wrote:
>
> > http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/reviews_story.php?id=38711
>
> COULDN'T have said it better myself

I agree on the odd typography - the twirls on the image captions are a
little distracting (on words like system and selection). The images could be
a bit more clear - especially those containing close to unreadable text in
pop-ups.

I don't find the US-centrism that much of a problem (as opposed to
"Accessible Web Sites" from glasshaus which has three chapters devoted to US
legislation) - in Joe Clark's book it is one appendix. Its quite easy to
draw the right parallels. For a UK perspective, I find Australian practice
setting a good precedent. I, however, doubt that the information contained
in the book is any less relevant because of its US bias - unless disabled
people in the US are different from those in the UK?

Accessibility is accessibility no matter what the country nor legislation.
And as Joe points out on the back-cover "If fear of lawsuits, government
mandates, and human-rights complaints is driving you to make your Website
more accessible, you're doing the right thing for the wrong reason."

I found Joe's book a good balance in my understanding - its corrected a few
perceptions I had (accessible websites would mean working on a mobile
phone). Perhaps its because I already have a working knowledge of
accessibility made it easier for me to take in the new info?

Overall I'm finding Joe's book a worthwhile read. Although keeping up on UK
legislation I have to do on my own, that's more my fault than Joe's.

The reviewer complains about Joe's "opinionated" views - how is that
different from experience?

*aside* The quote "Standards compliance is a form of programming maturity"
is a good one, but I hesitate to use it because of the word "programming"
and its implication of website creation as programming -- but that's just my
paranoia.

Mike

Received on Monday, 3 March 2003 07:41:49 UTC