Apps For All: Praise And Errata
In case you weren't already aware, I wrote a book. This is an unusual book since it is a whole technical book dedicated to making web applications accessible. Want to understand how to make dynamic, interactive applications that don't alienate and annoy folks? Using WAI-ARIA and other cool stuff? I've got you covered.
So there you have it. This post is where I'm collecting together reviews and endorsements for the book, plus where I'm listing any errata that the keen-eyed have spotted. Thank you.
Praise
The preeminent Bruce Lawson wrote a review of Apps For All on his blog. Sample quotation: Every developer should read this book, and put its techniques into practice. Now.
.
Heydon has written a truly awesome book here! He gets right to the stuff that developers love most: Coding. He provides concise context for those not too familiar with accessibility yet, but doesn't scare devs with legal stuff. He concentrates on the positive impact aspects aside those legal reqs and thus makes sure the book is fun to read! If you've been looking for a modern up-to-date easy introduction or refreshment of accessibility coding skills, this is the book to purchase!
Are you a #webdev wanting to code accessible web apps? Buy this http://t.co/wL5tz2ORtm by @heydonworks w/o delay. That is all. #a11y #dev
— Jennison Asuncion (@Jennison) June 7, 2014
Having read this book over the last couple of days I am in no doubt as to what all the developers at work are getting for Xmas. Its a fantastic read that sets out the reasons for WAI ARIA in a really easy to read and understand manner. the concepts are well explained and the code snippets are an awesome compliment to the well delivered prose. Its both funny and educational at the same time and I would highly recommend it to any developer who is keen to broaden his skill set. Fantastic job Heydon and I look forward to the sequel
Errata
The errata listed below refer to pages in the PDF version of the book. Many thanks to all those who spotted them, particularly @GaryJ, @KevinLozandier and @carpeau.
- In chapter 5, Peekaboo, the markup for the tab interface is really garbled and doesn't add up. Refer to the example code here for the correct HTML.
- Page 24: Code snippet should be for the
button:active
selector, not the simplebutton
selector - Page 24: The
top
value here should be4px
to match the4px
box-shadow
from the earlier, corresponding example - Page 35: I can't spell "somehwere" (path in the code snippet)
- Page 35:
aria-controls
should point tosubmenu
, notsubmenu1
- Page 40: I'm using CSS comments in HTML for some reason…
- Page 88: There are two code examples. Ignore the
ID
andaria-controls
values in the second. Stick to the first and the live example - Page 104: "YI really didn't like…". Yes, that should be "I…"