Pro HTML5 Accessibility: Building an Inclusive Web

Pro HTML5 Accessibility helps designers come to grips with building exciting, accessible and usable web sites and applications with HTML5. The book covers how to use HTML5 in order to serve the needs of people with disabilities and older persons using assistive technology (AT). It aims to be a useful ‘go-to’ guide, providing practical advice. It takes several approaches, including a look at the new semantics of HTML5 and how to combine its use with authoring practices you know from using earlier versions of HTML. It also demonstrates how HTML5 content is currently supported (or not) by assistive technologies such as screen readers, and what this means practically for accessibility in your web projects.

The HTML5 specification is huge, with new APIs and patterns that can be difficult to understand. Accessibility can also seem complex and nuanced if you have no experience interacting with people with disabilities. This book walks you through the process of designing exciting user interfaces that can potentially be used by everyone, regardless of ability. Accessibility is really a quality design issue, and getting it right is often more a matter of approach than having sophisticated, cutting-edge tools at your disposal.

This book will be your companion in your journey to understand both HTML5 and accessibility, as the author has many years of experience as a designer and web developer working directly with people with all types of disabilities. He has been involved with the development of HTML5 from an accessibility perspective for many years, as a member of the W3C WAI Protocols and Formats working group (which is responsible for ensuring W3C specifications are serving the needs of people with disabilities) as well as the HTML5 Working Group itself.

• Introduces the new HTML5 specification from an accessibility perspective
• Shows how incorporating accessibility into your interfaces using HTML5 can have benefits for all users
• Explains how HTML5 is currently supported by assistive technologies like screen readers, and how to work around these limitations when developing

What you’ll learn

• Gain an overview of assistive technologies and how they work with web content, as well as how to approach accessibility in your design projects
• Learn how HTML5 differs from HTML4 and earlier
• Understand how to practically apply HTML5 to your web projects in order to design accessible content.
• See what works and what doesn’t
• Learn the new semantics and structures within HTML5, and how to use them to build more accessible websites and applications
• See which HTML5 elements and attributes are supported by browsers and assistive technologies, and what this means for the user experience of people with disabilities
• Understand which parts of HTML5 are not well supported by browsers and assistive technology
• Get a snapshot of current support, its limitations, and how to design and code in a way that will support older assistive technologies and browsers as well as more feature-rich, newer technologies
• Learn how CSS, JavaScript, and WAI-ARIA can be used with HTML5 to support the development of accessible web content

Who this book is for

Pro HTML5 Accessibility is for the intermediate to advanced web designer and developer who is already building websites and applications but needs some help in understanding accessibility and how it relates to HTML5. The book can be read as a basic introduction to HTML5 and accessibility, but may be more suited to the professional or experienced designer who already has knowledge of HTML4 (or earlier) as well as CSS, WAI-ARIA and JavaScript. While no detailed knowledge of CSS, WAI-ARIA or scripting is really required, it will help the reader to understand some of the design patterns and examples discussed in the book.

About the Author

Joshue O Connor is senior accessibility consultant with NCBI's Centre for Inclusive Technology (CFIT) and is a leading expert on accessibility and digital inclusion. He is skilled in the design and development of accessible websites/applications due to many years of experience working with people with disabilities. He is a member of several W3C working groups and has written research papers on topics relating to accessibility and web development as well as a book on the open source CMS Joomla!, called Joomla Accessibility. He has a master of science degree in computing (assistive technology and universal design).