- Abbreviation
Element
- In XHTML the
title
attribute is used in conjunction with abbr
element to give the long form of an abbreviation,
allowing screen readers to speak the full word or
phrase. Use of <abbr> element is part of the
University of Minnesota Web Accessibility Standards
because screen-readers sometimes attempt to pronounce
abbreviations. It is also in WCAG (priority 3).
Example markup: <abbr title="University
of Minnesota Duluth">UMD</abbr>
- Accessibility (Web)
- Accessibility refers to web page information/content
being obtainable and functional to people with disabilities.
It is about providing access to information for
those who would otherwise lose their opportunity
to use the web. In contrast inaccessible means unobtainable,
nonfunctional.
- Accesskey
- An accesskey is an XHTML attribute. It is meant
to help users who navigating without a pointing
device, such as a mouse. Access keys are intended
to be a means of specifying a keyboard shortcut
for moving to a link, form component or other tabbable
object, using the following HTML elements -
a,
area, button, input,
label, legend or textarea.
Use of accesskey is controversial. The current opinion
of many accessibility experts is that, accesskeys
mostly work against accessibility. And because of
many conflicts, defining accesskeys seem to be a
waste of time unless you are designing for a controlled
environment such as an intranet.
- Adaptive
Technology
- Sometimes known as assistive technology. It is
software or hardware that has been specifically
designed to assist people with disabilities in carrying
out daily activities. Assistive technology includes
wheelchairs, reading machines, devices for grasping,
etc. In the area of Web Accessibility, common software-based
assistive technologies include screen readers, screen
magnifiers, speech synthesizers, and voice input
software that operate in conjunction with graphical
desktop browsers (among other user agents). Hardware
assistive technologies include alternative keyboards
and pointing devices.
- Affinity
Diagram
- Affinity diagramming is a categorization method
where users sort various concepts into several categories.
This usability method is used by a team to organize
a large amount of data according to the natural
relationships between the items. Basically, you
write each concept on a Post-It note and tack them
onto a wall. Team members move the notes to groups
based on how they feel the concept belongs with
other concepts.
- AJAX
- AJAX stands for or Asynchronous Javascript and
XML. It's a way to utilize the abilities of Javascript,
the Document Object Model, and XML to create interactivity
on the web.
- Alternative
Interface Access Protocol (AIAP)
- A technology under development by the National
Committee on Information Technology; it will allow
a user to get web pages in the form they choose
for the device they choose
- Alt
Attribute
- An alt attribute is used to specify alternative
text. It is used to replace an image. That means
that it serves the same function as the image. Users
of screen-readers, language translation applications
or some hand-held devices cannot directly access
pictures and other graphics. Similarly, some users
choose to turn picture loading off- especially those
with slower dial-in connections. These users rely
on alt attributes.
- Alt
Tag
- The term "alt tag" is sometimes incorrectly used
instead of the correct term " alt attribute". Actually
as hard core developers will tell you, in HTML their
is no such thing as an "alt tag". Technically, tags
are things like
<p> or </p>
that you use to mark up your page and the alt attribute
sits inside a tag, like this: <img alt=""
/ >. Calling an attribute a tag is a common
mistake.
- Alt
Text
- Alt text is generally a phrase or short sentence
that forms the content of the alt attribute. It
is contained within the quotation marks. This simple
idea has great power. The wrong or inadequate alt
text can make your web site inaccessible to people
with disabilities.
- Alternate
Stylesheet
- These style sheets can be selected by the visitor
as alternatives to the preferred style sheet. This
allows the visitor to personalize a site and choose
his or her favorite scheme. They can also be used
for accessibility (larger fonts etc).
- Americans
with Disabilities Act
- United States public law enacted in 1990 guaranteeing
rights for people with disabilities. This law mandates
reasonable accommodation and effective communication.
- Amyotrophic
Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
- A fatal, neuromuscular disease that causes rapid
deterioration of minor cells in the brain and spinal
cord, ultimately leading to impairment of mobility,
speech, and respiratory functions. It is more commonly
known as Lou Gerhig's disease.
- Anti-alias
- Anti-alias is a feature used to smooth out jagged
edges of an electronic graphic image.
- A-Prompt
(Accessibility Prompt)
- A tool developed to assist Web authors in improving
the accessibility and usability of HTML documents. It is made available
through a joint collaboration between the Adaptive
Technology Resource Centre at the University of
Toronto and the TRACE Center at the University of
Wisconsin. Although it's free, it's currently only
available for the Windows platform.
- Applet
- A Java program or application designed to be embedded
in, and invoked from, a web page, or other application.
It cannot be run by itself.
- Array
- In programming, an array is an indexed collection
of data values. For instance in PHP, and array is
a container for a number of variables which all
have the same name, but each has a different index.
Each member of the array is called an element. You
can create arrays in the same way you create variables,
as long as you remember to put square brackets around
them to denote the index. By default, arrays are
zero-based, that is, the first element of the array
has an index of zero.
- Assistive
Technology
- Sometimes known as adaptive technology. It is
equipment or software that assists people with disabilities
in performing every day activities. Examples include
screen readers and voice input software.
- Assignment Operator
- In programming, assignment operators assign a
value to a variable. The equal sign is the most
common assignment operator.
- Attribute
- In XHTML, an attribute is a
characteristic of an element.
- Audio Description
- An audio description is narration, spoken out
loud. It explains visual details. This allows visual
content to be accessible to the blind or those with
vision impairments. Audio descriptions of visual
content is important if, for example, a video provides
content that is relevant to the overall understanding
of the video but is not available/ recognized through
the default audio already present. For example an
audio description can take a movie, and talk you
through it. The narrator tells you what is happening
on the screen what you can not figure out just from
the soundtrack.
- Authoring Tool
- A software application used to create web pages
and web sites.
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