{PDF} Engineering Software for Accessibility Microsoft Corporation

Many corporations have to adhere to various standards when developing software and web sites, especially if they are dealing with government entities and agencies. For most others the thought of developing software and web sites that are accessible to people with disabilities usually doesn’t even cross their minds. In order to reach the widest audience possible and produce the best service for people, perhaps they should take this into account.

Engineering Software for Accessibility is a book dedicated to just this. The book is aimed towards project managers and architects and details what thought processes you should employ in making your software accessible to people with disabilities, be it color blindness, being totally blind, movement impaired etc.

Starting with an overview of various practices that should be considered it guides the user through the lifecycle of software development aimed specifically at impaired users. How to create your initial plans, what you should be looking for when designing logical hierarchies of controls on a page or in a window, the callbacks necessary for automated programs to take advantage of like screen readers etc. through to testing and implementation of your software.

The book is quite short and can easily be read in a day and there are numerous links provided for further information scattered through the book in logical places, for example, what exactly does section 508 compliance actually mean? What do you have to do to implement it? The book is fairly short weighing in at under 80 pages but this is a book you will find yourself coming back to time and time again. The book takes a fairly high level approach although there are sections that would benefit developers rather than project managers or architects.

If you have to develop software according to accessibility standards then this book is a must read. Even if you don’t I would still highly recommend reading this book and start thinking about ways that you can incorporate it’s suggestions into the software that you are developing. Highly recommended.