Books on web accessibility

Blog posts and documentation are good for looking something up. These four are worth reading start to finish - each one builds an argument across a whole book, not just a single pattern.

Inclusive Design Patterns - Heydon Pickering #

Inclusive Design Patterns walks through a library of accessible HTML/CSS components and how to reason about WAI-ARIA rather than just apply it by rote. It also covers form validation, error messages, and touch targets - several of the same topics this site covers, from the person who wrote much of the foundational writing on the subject. Proceeds from the book have gone to the ACLU and the Democratic Socialists of America.

Form Design Patterns - Adam Silver #

Form Design Patterns is ten chapters, each one a real form problem solved step by step - autocomplete, validation, multi-step flows, date inputs. If accessible forms and labels and accessible error messages and validation on this site were useful, this book is the long-form version of the same territory.

A Web for Everyone - Sarah Horton and Whitney Quesenbery #

A Web for Everyone takes a different angle from the other three: instead of starting with code, it starts with people, building the case for accessibility around a set of realistic user personas with different abilities. Useful if you need to make the case for accessibility work to people who aren’t developers.

Accessibility for Everyone - Laura Kalbag #

Accessibility for Everyone is the shortest and most approachable of the four (166 pages), with a foreword from Heydon Pickering. It’s a solid first accessibility book for someone who’s never read one before, and it’s also free to read online at the author’s site.