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Design which enables information, regardless of form, structure or presentation, to be accessed by any person regardless of ability or circumstance.
An accessible website is one which all users can enter, navigate within and interact with ease.
Equipment for use by people with a disability or special need may be purpose-built or a modified version of equipment that is generally available.
An HTML attribute which is short for 'alternative text'. Alternative text is any text that can be seen when the graphics are turned off or when the mouse is run over the graphics.
Alternatives to the normal keyboards, for example ergonomic keyboards, expanded keyboards, compact keyboards, one-handed keyboards, membranous keyboards, etc.
An applet is a program designed to be executed from within another application.
A computer code that represents characters as 7-digit binary numbers. ASCII is the most common format for text files in computers and the Internet, allowing data to be transferred between computers.
A software application which is used to create web content and websites.
Automatic refreshing of a web page.
An element in HTML used to enclose longer quotations.
Software used to access and navigate web pages
Text-based information that replicates what is spoken in video clips. There are two types of captions:
An adaptation of the music-playing CDs that was designed to store text and graphics for computers.
Pixel coordinates are interpreted by the user agent; the user agent follows the link activated within a certain region, nothing needs to be sent to the server for interpretation.
Developers create style sheets that define how different elements, such as headers, text and links, appear. Style sheets can then be applied to any web page. The term cascading is derived from the ability to use multiple style sheets within a web page with the most recent taking precedence over the style of the corresponding element.
Refers to changing the features of browsers, for example fonts, colours, etc, to improve web access.
A description of a multimedia element that is text only. The letter 'D' is placed near the multimedia element (for example, a video clip) and when the 'D' is clicked, it links to a web page describing the video in text.
A deprecated element or attribute is one that has been outdated by newer constructs. Deprecated elements are defined in the reference manual in appropriate locations- but are clearly marked as deprecated may become obsolete in future versions of HTML.
To copy a file from the Internet to your computer.
A new type of CD-ROM, that can hold 4.7 gigabytes of information (28 times as much as the current CD-ROMs).
Refers to content which is retrieved at the moment it is needed rather than in advance. Usually stored within a database on the server.
Braille cells (2x4 matrices) are formed by plastic pins that are raised and lowered electronically. This display connects to a computer port and has information sent to it by a screen reader. This is used by people with no useful vision.
Keyboards where the keys are set in two convex banks and angles to produce a more comfortable position for wrists.
An event handler is the code that is executed when an event occurs. Example of events could be a mouse click or a variable value being reached. An event handler could cause a new page to load.
There are two main types of expanded keyboards: one resembles a normal keyboard but with larger keys (for example, 2.5 cm square). The other uses a membranous surface and an overlay where associated software allows a given area of the surface to represent a chosen key.
The physical objects that a computer consists of, such as disks, disk drives, display screens, keyboards, printers, boards, and chips; hardware is often contrasted with software which refers to the data, instructions and programs which are stored on a computer.
A mouse-emulation device useful for people with severe physical limitations; generally used in conjunction with onscreen keyboards. The pointer is connected to the computer via a cable or infra-red beam, so that the cursor moves in accordance with the user's head movements. 'Clicking' is done by activating a switch which is available in many types.
The web page typically at the top of the website hierarchy, theoretically the first page visited or the page which holds all major site information and links.
Acronym for HyperText Mark-up Language. It is the primary language that is used to create documents on the World Wide Web.
An element in a document that links to a different place in that or an entirely different document.
A software package that provides synthetic speech output from web pages and includes sophisticated naviagation tools.
A graphic element stored on a web page which has regions that are hyperlinks.
A worldwide system of computer networks in which users at any one computer can, if they have permission, get information from any other computer.
As the name implies, an ISP provides access to the Internet for individuals or companies. The ISP provides a software package, username, password, access phone number and an email address. Sometimes an ISP is also referred to as an IAP (Internet access provider).
An object-based programming language, specifically designed for the Internet.
An object-oriented scripting language developed by Netscape Communication Corporation.
An HTML tag used to connect a form element and its label.
A reference to another web page on the World Wide Web; when the link is clicked on, the user will be taken to that URL. L inks are usually underlined so that the user can recognise them.
An HTML tag used for long descriptions of media.
The entire set of tags (formatting descriptors) for a document . This tells the browser how to display the data.
A language similar to HTML that allows mathematical symbols and formatting to be shown.
A tool that adds an audio description describing visuals (including action, scene changes, graphics and onscreen text) in a multimedia element.
Data about data. Internet communities use metadata to catalogue and organise the huge volume of information on the net.
A coding built into some Microsoft products that allows developers of adaptive technology to access underlying information and present it in more meaningful ways to the user. For example, MSAA makes it possible for a screen reader to present information from a web page that would otherwise be inaccessible to people with vision loss.
Display two colours, one for the background and one for the foreground. The colours can be black and white, green and black, or amber and black.
Substitutes for mouses (such as joysticks and headpointers) used by people with physical disabilities.
The combination of more than one medium, for example text, sound and motion video.
Elements which assist the user in navigation, for example links, navigation buttons and search functions.
Software which puts a representation of the keyboard on the screen. Characters are selected with a mouse or a mouse emulation device by clicking or dwelling on the character.
A file format created by Adobe to enable documents to be saved as read only (that is, they cannot be changed or overwritten) and transported over the Internet. These files must be read with Adobe reader, which is free to download from the Internet.
Recurrent seizures precipitated by visual stimuli, particularly flickering light.
The first stage of a website built to show the functionality, purpose and look and feel of the final product. The first model.
An element in HTML used to enclose short quotations.
Software designed to help people with reading or literacy problems. This may include word prediction software, synthetic speech output and dictionary, thesaurus and pronunciation guides.
Devices that can be used in place of keyboards, which may be used by people with limited or constrained movement.
The screen reader monitors the text on screen and sends the material to the user in a different format, via a speech synthesiser or electronic Braille display.
The contents of a computer programming language, or list of instructions; also referred to as macros or batch files.
When there is more information than can fit on a screen at the one time, scrolling moves all the lines of text one position over so that a new line of text can be seen. For example, when you scroll down (using the scroll bar to the right) all the lines of text move up, the top ones disappearing, so that new lines of text are shown at the bottom of the page.
A program that allows users to search for documents on the World Wide Web by using a list of specified keywords or more complex instructions. A search engine is similar in function and in appearance to an electronic library catalogue
A function that allows the user to search for a particular word or phrase in web pages.
A computer device or program that provides services to other computer programs which may be on the same or other computers. A web server is the computer program that serves requested HTML documents.
An image map which resides on the server; this is expressed as a href surrounding an image tag and resides in the cgi-bin.
A table of contents for a website.
A visual representation of the content of a website.
Data, instructions or programs that can be stored electronically;here are two categories of software:
A device that allows the computer to output sound through connected speakers, to record sounds from a microphone input, and to manipulate sounds stored on the computer.
Text stored on computer is converted into synthesised (or artificial) speech. The synthesiser can be an external box which connects to a computer port or card inside the computer. Speech synthesisers are useful for people with little or no useful vision and for people who have reading difficulties.
These define a document's appearance by specifying features such as the default font, spacing, heading levels, line spacing and margin widths. In web pages, the style rules are often embedded in the document heading or linked to a separate sheet.
Used to operate onscreen keyboards; switches can be activated by pressure, tilting, any movement, air pressure from sucking a tube, and blinking and are used by people with very limited movement.
These magnify text by up to 16 times and are useful for people with limited vision. Enlargement programs are used in conjunction with regular applications (word-processing, e-mail, and web browsers). For example, limited software on both Macintosh and Windows computer systems, Magic, Zoomtext.
Can be set for many different page elements and gives brief information about that page element. You can set a title attribute in an image, table, form etc.
To copy a file from your computer terminal onto a computer network so that it may be accessed on the Internet.
The unique address given to each web page.
Tools that can be used by web content developers to validate how well-formed their site is.
This is also referred to as speech to text software; essentially, this is software that processes speech. The user talks into a microphone connected to the computer's sound card, allowing both text and instructions to be dictated to the computer.
W3C is the World Wide Web consortium, an organisation working to develop standards for the Internet.
A software program that displays requested web pages. The two most commonly used browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.
The web interface is the screen that the user sees in front of them when they are using the web - the 'face' of the web; the appearance of the screen, including the commands, graphical displays and buttons allows users to interact with the computer and use the web.
As text is entered by the user, word prediction software offers a list of probable words where the correct word can be selected. This is useful for both people with literacy problems, and people who use very slow input methods such as switch input. It can be used with standard software.
A text layout that breaks lines of text up according to the width of columns of text.
The 'Web' is a collection of servers (computer programs that provide services to other computer programs) on the Internet that support documents of a particular format. These documents are typically formatted in HTML (HyperText Mark-up Language).