This document is an internal working draft published for review and
comment, specifically for several WAI working groups. It was
created by Harvey Bingham and is currently being
worked on as a proposed glossary for use in future versions of the Authoring
Tool Accessibility Guidelines [ATAG10], Techniques for Authoring Tool
Accessibility [ATAG-TECHS], User Agent Accessibility Guidelines [UAAG10],
Techniques for User Agent Accessibility Guidelines [UAAG-TECHS], as well as
being a proposed glossary for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
[WCAG20] which is a W3C working draft.
The purpose of this combined glossary is to allow comparison of
definitions, and potentially to provide a single glossary for all the
accessibility guidelines. The Evaluation and Repair group and readers of more
than one guideline will benefit from consistent uses of terms.
This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by
other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use W3C Working Drafts as
reference material or to cite them as other than "work in progress". A list
of current W3C Recommendations and other technical
documents is available.
Publication of this document does not imply endorsement by the W3C, any of
its member organisations or working groups.
Translations of this document or of drafts may be available. Further
translations are welcome, but prospective translators should ensure that they
are familiar with W3C copyright and translation policy.
- AccessibilityGENERIC a la Tim's
book-glossary
- The art of ensuring that, to as large an extent as
possible, facilities (such as, for example, Web access) are available to people
whether or not they have impairments of one sort or another.
- Accessibility
[ATAG10]
- See also: Accessible [ATAG10]
- Within these guidelines, "accessible Web content"
and "accessible authoring tool" mean that the content and tool can be
used by people regardless of disability.
- To understand the accessibility issues relevant to
authoring tool design, consider that many authors may be creating
content in contexts very different from your own:
- They may not be able to see, hear, move, or may not be able to
process some types of information easily or at all;
- They may have difficulty reading or comprehending text;
- They may not have or be able to use a keyboard or mouse;
- They may have a text-only display, or a small screen.
- Accessible design will benefit people in these
different authoring scenarios and also many people who do not have a
physical disability but who have similar needs.
Example: Someone may be working in a
noisy environment and thus require an alternative re of audio
information. Similarly, someone may be working in an eyes-busy
environment and thus require an audio equivalent to information they
cannot view. Users of small mobile devices (with small screens, no
keyboard, and no mouse) have similar functional needs as some users
with disabilities.
- Accessibility
11-13-2001 Human Factors
and Ergonomics Society
- The set of properties that allows a product,
service, or facility to be used by people with a wide range of
capabilities, either directly or in conjunction with assistive
technologies. Although the term "accessibility" typically addresses
users who have a disability, the concept is not limited to disability
issues.
- Accessibility Awareness
[ATAG10]01-12-2001
- An "accessibility-aware" application is one that has
been designed to account for authors' differing needs, abilities, and
technologies. In the case of authoring tools, this means that (1) care
has been taken to ensure that the content produced by user-authors is
accessible and (2) that the user interface has been designed to be
usable with a variety of display and control technologies.
- Accessibility Information
[ATAG10]
- "Accessibility information" is content, including
information and markup, that is used to improve the accessibility of a
document. Accessibility information includes, but is not limited to, equivalent alternative information.
- Accessibility
Permission [WCAG10] [WCAG20] (PDF-Tech)01-08-2001
- A PDF file can be encrypted (PDF 1.1) to protect its
contents from unauthorized access. PDF's standard security handler
defines a set of access privileges for a document, including privileges
such as modifying the document's contents, copying text and graphics
from the document, and printing the document. In PDF 1.4, this set
includes accessibility permission, which controls whether the contents
of the document are available via standard accessibility APIs to screen
readers and other assistive technology.
- Accessibility Problem
[ATAG10] (Also: Inaccessible Markup
[ATAG10])
- See also: Inaccessible
Markup [ATAG10]
- Inaccessible Web content or authoring tools cannot
be used by some people with disabilities. The Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines 1.0 WCAG 1.0 describes how to create
accessible Web content.
- Accessible [WCAG10]
[WCAG20] 03-18-2002 VERY WEAK - NEEDS BETTER DEFINITION
- Content is accessible when it may be used by someone
with a disability.
- Accessible
[ATAG10]
- See Accessibility
[ATAG10].
- Accessible Authoring
Practice [ATAG10]
- "Accessible authoring practices" improve the
accessibility of Web content. Both authors and tools engage in
accessible authoring practices.
Example:, authors write clearly,
structure their content, and provide navigation aids. Tools
automatically generate valid markup and assist authors in providing and
managing appropriate equivalent alternatives.
- Access Key (s) 11-13-2001 Human Factors and
Ergonomics Society
- See also Mnemonic, Modifier Key
- The portion of an option name or control label used
for keyboard selection. Also called mnemonic, implicit designator, or
menu mnemonic. See implicit designator.
- Acronym [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]12-13-2000
- An identifier formed from some of the letters (often
the initials) of a phrase and used as an abbreviation.
- Activate
[WD-UAAG10-20010409]05-05-2001
- In this document, the verb "to activate" means
(depending on context) either:
The effect of activation depends on the type of enabled element or
user interface control. For instance, when a link is activated, the
user agent generally retrieves the linked Web resource. When a form control is
activated, it may change state (e.g., check boxes) or may take user
input (e.g., a text entry field).
- Active Element
[SVG10] 01-12-2001
- An active element is an element with behaviors that
may be activated (or "triggered") either through the user interface or
through scripts. Which elements are active depends on the document
language and whether the features are supported by the user agent. In
SVG documents, for example active elements
include links and element instances with scripts (event handlers)
explicitly associated with them.
Example: Through the various "on"
attributes: onactivate etc. Most systems use the content focus to
navigate active elements and identify which is to be activated. An
active element's behavior may be triggered through any number of
mechanisms, including the mouse, keyboard, an Application Programming
Interface (API), etc. The effect of activation depends on the element.
For instance, when a link is activated, the user agent generally
retrieves the linked resource.
- Active Element
[UAAG10]
- An active element is an element with behaviors that
may be activated (or
"triggered") either through the user interface or through an API (e.g., by using scripts). Some element
instances may be active at times but not at others (e.g., they may be
"deactivated" through scripts, or they are only active for a period of
time determined by the author). Which elements are active depends on
the document language and whether the features are supported by the
user agent. In HTML 4.01 HTML4.01 documents, for example, active elements include links, image
maps, form controls, element instances with a value for the "longdesc"
attribute, and element instances with scripts (event handlers)
explicitly associated with them (e.g., through the various "on"
attributes). Most systems use the content focus to navigate active
elements and identify which is to be activated. An active element's
behavior may be triggered through any number of mechanisms, including
the mouse, keyboard, an API, etc. The effect of
activation depends on the element. For instance, when a link is
activated, the user agent generally retrieves the linked web resources. When a form control is
activated, it may change state (e.g., check boxes) or may take user
input (e.g., a text field). Refer also to the definition of event handler
- Accessible design will benefit people in these
different authoring scenarios and also many people who do not have a
physical disability but who have similar needs.
Example: Someone may be working in a
noisy environment and thus require an alternative re of audio
information. Similarly, someone may be working in an eyes-busy
environment and thus require an audio equivalent to information they
cannot view. Users of small mobile devices (with small screens, no
keyboard, and no mouse) have similar functional needs as some users
with disabilities.
- Active Element [UA
Draft] NEWER 01-02-03
- An active element is a piece of content with behaviors that may be activated
(or "triggered") either through the user interface or through an API (e.g., by using scripts).
What constitutes an active element depends on the content. In
HTML 4 [HTML4] documents, for
example, active elements include links,
image maps, form controls, element instances with a value for the
"longdesc" attribute, and element instances with scripts (event
handlers) explicitly associated with them (e.g., through the various
"on" attributes). The requirements of this document refer only to
active elements that may be recognized through markup (and not, for
example, through scripts or style sheets).
Some element instances may be active at times but not at others (e.g.,
they may be "deactivated" through scripts, or they may only be active
for a period of time determined by the author).
Potential user interaction with a piece of content does not imply
that the content constitutes an active element.
Example: The user may select text an
copy it to the clipboard, but the selected text is not (necessarily) an
active element, because the selection is a functionality provided by
the user agent. For the purposes of this document, markup languages
determine which elements are potentially active elements.
The effect of activation depends on the element. For instance, when
a link is activated, the user agent generally retrieves the linked Web
resource. When a form control is activated, it may change
state (e.g., check boxes) or may take user input (e.g., a text entry
field). See also the definition of event handler.
Most systems use the content
focus to indicate which active element will be activated on
user demand.
- ActualText Value [WCAG10]
[WCAG20] (PDF-Tech)NEW 01-01-08
- Sometimes characters are rendered by graphics
commands other than showstring. For instance, an illuminated character
may be rendered by an image or a series of graphics commands. In this
situations, the Actual Text property is used to identify the character
being rendered. This character may be concantentated with adjoining
text to form a word.
- Adobe Glyph Name
[WCAG10] [WCAG20] (PDF-Tech) 01-11-2001
- The name of a character in the Adobe standard
character encodings, in Appendix D of the PDF 1.3 Reference Manual. The
encodings list characters, character names, and character codes used in
platform standard encodings.
- Afford, Affordance 04-13-2001 Human Factors &
HCI, Al Gilman
- An affordance is an effective service delivery; one
that makes it into user space where the user can actually use it. Or
the effect of the service delivery as observed within user space.
- Aging-Related
Conditions [PWD-Use-Web1] 03-18-2001 "How People w/dis
Use the Web"
- Changes in people's functional ability due to aging
can include subtle and/or gradual changes in abilities or a combination
of abilities including vision, hearing, dexterity and memory. Any one
of these limitations can affect an individual's ability to access Web
content.
- Alert [ATAG10] 01-12-2001
- An "alert" draws the author's attention to an event
or situation. It may require a response from the author. An alert warns
the author that there are problems that need to be addressed.
Attracting the author's attention artfully can be challenging, since
author perceptions of alerts, prompts, and warnings can influence
opinions of the tool and even of accessible authoring.
An Unintrusive Alert is an alert such as an icon,
underlining, or gentle sound that can be presented to the author
without necessitating immediate action.
Example: In some word processors
misspelled text is highlighted without forcing the author to make
immediate corrections. These alerts allow authors to continue editing
with the knowledge that problems will be easy to identify at a later
time. However, authors may become annoyed at the extra formatting or
may choose to ignore the alerts altogether.
An Interruptive Alert is an informative message that
interrupts the editing process for the author.
Example: Interruptive alerts are often
presented when an author's action could cause a loss of data.
Interruptive alerts allow problems to be brought to the author's
attention immediately. However, authors may resent the constant delays
and forced actions. Many people prefer to finish expressing an idea
before returning to edit its format.
- Alert [UAAG10] 01-12-2001
- To "alert" means to make the user aware of some
event, without requiring acknowledgement.
Example: The user agent may alert the
user that new content is available on the server by displaying a text
message in the user agent's status bar.
- Alternative Equivalents for
Content [UAAG10] 02-03-2001
- Since rendered content in some forms is not always
accessible to users with disabilities, authors must supply alternative
equivalents for content. In the context of this document, the
equivalent must fulfill essentially the same function for the person
with a disability (at least insofar as is feasible, given the nature of
the disability and the state of technology), as the "primary" content
does for the person without any disability.
Example: The text "The Full Moon" might
convey the same information as an image of a full moon when presented
to users.
Note: That equivalent information focuses
on fulfilling the same function. If the image is part of a link and
understanding the image is crucial to guessing the link target, an
equivalent must also give users an idea of the link target. User agents
must make the alternative equivalent content available to users or
software that require it (in place of and/or in addition to the
"primary" content). Alternative representations include text
equivalents (long and short, synchronized and unsynchronized) and
non-text equivalents (e.g., captions, auditory descriptions, a visual
track that shows sign language translation of a written text, etc.).
- Alternative Information
[ATAG10]
- (Also: Equivalent Alternative
[ATAG10] & Text equivalent
WC)
- Content is "equivalent" to other content when both
fulfill essentially the same function or purpose upon presentation to the user. Equivalent
alternatives play an important role in accessible authoring practices
since certain types of content may not be accessible to all users
(e.g., video, images, audio, etc.). Authors are encouraged to provide
text equivalents for non-text content since text may be rendered as
synthesized speech for individuals who have visual or learning
disabilities, as braille for individuals who are blind, or as graphical
text for individuals who are deaf or do not have a disability. For more
information about equivalent alternatives, please refer to the Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG 1.0 WCAG 1.0.
- Alternative Keyboards or
Switches[PWD-Use-Web1] 03-18-2001 "How People w/dis
Use the Web"
- Alternate keyboards or switches are hardware or
software devices used by people with physical disabilities, that
provide an alternate way of creating keystrokes that appear to come
from the standard keyboard.
Examples: Include keyboard with
extra-small or extra-large key spacing, keyguards that only allow
pressing one key at a time, on-screen keyboards, eyegaze keyboards, and
sip-and-puff switches. Web-based applications that can be operated
entirely from the keyboard, with no mouse required, support a wide
range of alternative modes of input.
- Animation [WCAG10
Tech] 03-10-2001
- In this document, the term "animation" refers to any
visual movement effect created automatically (i.e., without manual user
interaction). This definition of animation includes video and animated
images. Animation techniques include:
- graphically displaying a sequence of snapshots within the same
region (e.g., as is done for video and animated images). The series
of snapshots may be provided by a single resource (e.g., an
animated GIF image) or from distinct resources (e.g., a series of
images downloaded continuously by the user agent).
- scrolling text (e.g., achieved through markup or style
sheets).
- displacing graphical objects around the viewport (e.g., a picture
of a ball that is moved around the viewport giving the impression
that it is bouncing off of the viewport edges). For instance, the
SMIL 2.0 [SMIL20] animation modules explain how to create such
animation effects in a declarative manner (i.e., not by composition
of successive snapshots).
- Annotation 05-07-2001 Annotation
Glossary
- A Web object (i.e. an object with a URI) about which
there exist some [RDF] statements using an annotation vocabulary. The
annotation vocabulary will typically describe a relationship between
the annotation and one or more other Web resources to which the
annotation is attached.
- Annotation
Service 05-07-2001 Annotation Glossary
- A URI for an HTTP service that supports reading and
writing of chunks of RDF. A single HTTP server (e.g.
http://www.w3.org:80/) may support multiple annotation servers, each
with its own branch of the URI space; e.g.
http://www.w3.org/Team/Annotation/ is logically a distinct annotation
service from http://www.w3.org/Member/Annotation/.
- Annotea 05-07-2001 Annotation
Glossary
- @@
- Anonymization[CC/PP]
04-23-2001
- Hiding the identity of the User as a security
precaution.
- Applet [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
01-11-2001
- A Beginning...01-01-25 A
Java program inserted into a Web page that relies on a browser to
provide the environment in which it can run. Applets are essentially
guests of the browser. The browser takes care of their welfare and
provides and manages access to the platform specific services.
- API's [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
01-11-2001
- A Beginning...01-01-25 An application
programming interface (API) defines how
communication may take place between applications.
- A device API defines how
communication may take place with an input or output device such as a
keyboard, mouse, video card, etc.
- A standard device API is one that
is considered standard for that particular device on a given operating
or windowing system.
- Application Programming Interface
(API) [UAAG10] 01-25-2001
- An application programming interface (API) defines how
communication may take place between applications.
- A device API defines how
communication may take place with an input or output device such as a
keyboard, mouse, video card, etc.
- A standard device API is one that
is considered standard for that particular device on a given operating
or windowing system.
- Application Programming Interface, standard
input/output/device (API) [UAAG10] Draft01-25-2001
- An application programming interface (API) defines how
communication may take place between applications.
As part of encouraging interoperability, this document recommends
using standard APIs where possible, although this
document does not define in all cases how those APIs are standardized
(i.e., whether they are defined by specifications such as W3C
Recommendations, defined by an operating system vendor, de facto
standards, etc.). Implementing APIs that are independent of a
particular operating system (e.g., the W3C DOM Level 2 specifications)
may reduce implementation costs for multi-platform user agents and
promote the development of multi-platform assistive technologies.
Implementing standard APIs defined for a particular operating system
may reduce implementation costs for assistive technology developers who
wish to interoperate with more than one piece of software running on
that operating system.
A "device API" defines how communication may take
place with an input or output device such as a keyboard, mouse, video
card, etc. A "standard device API" is one that is considered standard
for that particular device on a given operating or windowing system.
In this document, an "input/output API" defines
how applications or devices communicate with a user agent. As used in
this document, input and output APIs include, but are not limited to,
device APIs. Input and output APIs also include more abstract
communication interfaces than those specified by device APIs. A
"standard input/output API" is one that is expected to be implemented
by software running on a particular operating system. Standard
input/output APIs may vary from system to system.
Example: On desktop computers today,
the standard input APIs are for the mouse and
keyboard. For touch screen devices or mobile devices, standard input
APIs may include stylus, buttons, voice, etc. The
graphical display and sound card are considered standard ouput devices
for a graphical desktop computer environment, and each has a standard
API.
- Appropriate
[ATAG10] 02-27-2002 NEEDS DEFINITION
- @@
- Array [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]
- A Beginning...01-01-25 A
set of elements of some type that can be identified by an index,
starting in JavaScript at 0, and increasing by 1 for each subsequent
member of the array.
- Assistive
Technology 12-29-2001 [Access Board]
- Any item, piece of equipment, or system, whether
acquired commercially, modified, or customized, that is commonly used
to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of
individuals with disabilities.
[36 C.F.R. 1194.4]
- Assistive Technology Devices
(Visual Disabilities) 10-12-2001 RNIB Devices for
blind and the partially sighted. Glossary
- Web Browsers for Non-Visual Output
- @@
- @@
- @@
- @@
- @@
- @@
- @@
- @@
- @@
- @@
- @@
- Attribute
[ATAG10-TECHS][ATAG-Wombat] 08-25-2001
This document uses the term "attribute" as used
in SGML and XML ([XML]) : Element types may be defined
as having any number of attributes. Some attributes are integral to the
accessibility of content (e.g., the "alt",
"title", and "longdesc" attributes in
HTML).
Example: Below, the attributes of the
beverage element type are "flavour", which
has the value "lots", and "colour", which has the value
"red": <beverage flavour="lots" colour="red">my
favourite</beverage>
- Audio Description, Auditory
Description [UAAG10] 07-09-2001
- An auditory description (sometimes, "audio
description") is either a prerecorded human voice or a synthesized
voice (recorded or generated dynamically) describing the key visual
elements of a movie or other animation. The auditory description is
synchronized with the audio track of the presentation, usually during
natural pauses in the audio track. Auditory descriptions include
information about actions, body language, graphics, and scene
changes.
- Authentication
Code 05-07-2001 XML-Signature Syntax and Processing
- A value generated from the application of a shared
key to a message via a cryptographic algorithm such that it has the
properties of message authentication (integrity) but not signer
authentication.
- Authoring Tool
[ATAG10-TECHS][ATAG-Wombat] 08-25-2001
- An "authoring tool" is any software that is used to
produce content for publishing on the Web. Authoring tools include:
- Markup Editing Tools
Editing tools specifically designed to produce Web content (e.g.,
WYSIWYG HTML
and XML editors)
- Multimedia Creation Tools
Tools that produce multimedia, especially where it is intended for
use on the Web (e.g., video production and editing suites, SMIL authoring packages)
- Content Management Tools
Tools for site management or site publication, including tools that
automatically generate Web sites dynamically from a database,
on-the-fly conversion and Web site publishing tools
- Programming Tools
Tools that offer the option of saving material in a Web format
(e.g., word processors, spread-sheet or desktop publishing
packages)
- Layout Management Tools
Tools for management of layout (e.g., CSS,
XSLT and JSS
formatting tools)
- Transformation Filtering Tools
Tools for management of layout (e. Tools that transform documents
into Web formats (e.g., filters to transform desktop publishing
formats to HTML)
- Automated Markup Insertion
Function [ATAG10-TECHS][ATAG-Wombat] 08-25-2001
- "Automated markup insertion functions" are the
features of an authoring tool that allow the author to produce markup
without directly typing it. This includes a wide range of tools from
simple markup insertion aids (such as a bold button on a toolbar) to
markup managers (such as table makers that include powerful tools such
as "split cells" that can make multiple changes) to high level site
building wizards that produce almost complete documents on the basis of
a series of author preferences.
- Avatar 02-24-2002 IMS Guidelines for
Developing Accessible Learning Applications and iCan
- See also Signing Avatar
- Avatars are realistically animated, on-screen,
interactive human characters. A particular use of Avatars for
accessibility is to create signing Avatars.
- Available [ATAG10]
02-27-2002 NEEDS
DEFINITION
- @@
- Backward Compatible
[WCAG10] [WCAG20]
- Design that continues to work with earlier versions
of a language, program, etc.
- Basic Shape [SVG10]
02-02-2001
- Standard shapes which are predefined in SVG as a
convenience for common graphical operations. Specifically: 'rect',
'circle', 'ellipse', 'line', 'polyline', 'polygon'.
- Binding [XFORMS10]NEW 07-15-2001
- The connection between a form control and a model
item and an instance data item, represented as a binding expression
- Binding Expression
[XFORMS10]NEW 07-15-2001
- An XPath addressing expression used by the binding
to connect form controls to other parts of XForms
- Blindness[PWD-Use-Web1]
NEW 01-03-19 "How People
w/dis Use the Web"
- Blindness involves a substantial, uncorrectable loss
of vision in both eyes.
- Boolean [WCAG10]
[WCAG20] NEWer 01-05-07
- A primitive data type that only can have values of
true or false. As in radio buttons. Also, a variable of Boolean type or
a function with Boolean arguments or result. The most common Boolean
functions are AND, OR and NOT.
- Braille [WCAG10]
[WCAG20] NEW 01-01-26
- Braille uses six raised dots in different patterns
to represent letters and numbers to be read by people who are blind
with their fingertips. An image of the word "Accessible" in braille
follows:
- A braille
display, commonly referred to as a "dynamic braille
display," raises or lowers dot patterns on command from an electronic
device, usually a computer. The result is a line of braille that can
change from moment to moment. Current dynamic braille displays range in
size from one cell (six or eight dots) to an eighty-cell line, most
having between twelve and twenty cells per line.
- Braille and Refreshable
Braille[PWD-Use-Web1] NEW
01-03-18 "How People w/dis Use the
Web"
- Braille is a system using six to eight raised dots
in various patterns to represent letters and numbers that can be read
by the fingertips. Braille systems vary greatly around the world. Some
"grades" of braille include additional codes beyond standard
alpha-numeric characters to represent common letter groupings (e.g.,
"th," "ble" in Grade II American English braille) in order to make
braille more compact. An 8-dot version of braille has been developed to
allow all ASCII characters to be represented. Dynamic or refreshable
braille involves the use of a mechanical display where dots (pins) can
be raised and lowered dynamically to allow any braille characters to be
displayed
- Browser (for Non-Visual
Output) 10-12-2001 RNIB Devices for blind and the partially sighted.
Glossary
- See also Web
Browsers, Voice
Browsers
- Blind and partially sighted people will use one of
three possible methods to read pages on the World Wide Web. Users with
some sight can use screen magnification software. For users with little
or no useful sight the options are speech synthesisers or sound card to
convert text into speech or a refreshable braille display to convert
text into braille.
- eReader - CAST
- @@
- Cache [CC/PP] 04-23-2001
- A storage area used by a server or proxy to store
data resources that have been retrieved or created in response to a
request. When a new request for a "cached" data resource is received,
the server or proxy can respond with the cached version instead of
retrieving or creating a new copy.
- Cacheable [CC/PP]
04-23-2001
- A data resource is said to be "cacheable" if the
data resource contains a property that allows a sever to determine
whether the cached resource matches a request for a similar
resource.
- Canvas [SVG10] 02-02-2001
- A surface onto which graphics elements are drawn,
which can be real physical media such as a display or paper or an
abstract surface such as a allocated region of computer memory.
- Captions [ATAG10]
- "Captions" are essential text
equivalents for movie audio. Captions consist of a text
transcript of the auditory track of the movie (or other
video presentation) that is
synchronized with the video and auditory tracks. Captions are generally
rendered graphically and benefit people who can see but are deaf,
hard-of-hearing, or cannot hear the audio.
- Captions [UAAG10]
- Captions (or sometimes "closed captions") are text transcripts that are synchronized
with other audio or visual tracks. Captions convey information about
spoken words and non-spoken sounds such as sound effects. They benefit
people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, and anyone who cannot hear the
audio (e.g., someone in a noisy environment). Captions are generally
rendered graphically above, below, or
superimposed over video.
- Note: Other terms that
include the word "caption" may have different meanings in this [UA]
document. For instance, a "table caption" is a title for the table,
often positioned graphically above or below the table. In this [UA]
document, the intended meaning of "caption" will be clear from
context.
- Capability [CC/PP]
04-23-2001
- An attribute of a sender or receiver (often the
receiver) which indicates an ability to generate or process a
particular type of message content.
- Cascading Style Sheet
(s) 12-29-2001 [High-Tech]
- See also XSLT
- Style sheets describe how documents are presented on
screens, in print, and even in spoken voice. Style sheets allow the
user to change the appearance of hundreds of Web pages by changing just
one file. A style sheet is made up of rules that tell a browser how to
present a document. Numerous properties may be defined for an element;
each property is given a value.
- CC/PP [CC/PP] 04-23-2001
- Composite Capability/Preference Profiles.
A CC/PP profile is a description of device capabilities and user
preferences that can be used to guide the adaptation of content
presented to that device.
As the number and variety of devices connected to the Internet grows,
there is a corresponding increase in the need to deliver content that
is tailored to the capabilities of different devices. Some limited
techniques, such as HTTP accept headers and HTML alt tags, already
exist. As part of a framework for content adaptation and
contextualization, a general purpose profile format is required that
can describe the capabilities of a user agent and preferences of its
user. CC/PP is designed to be such a format.
- CC/PP Repository
[CC/PP] 04-23-2001
- A server that stores the User Agent Profile or
profile segments persistently in a form that may be referenced by and
incorporated into a profile. A CC/PP repository is typically a Web
server that provides CC/PP profiles or profile segments in response to
HTTP requests.
- Channel Security
[CC/PP] 04-23-2001
- A form of security (authentication and/or
confidentiality) that operates on a given communication channel,
regardless of the information that is transferred over that channel.
The security thus provided is between the end-points of the channel
only.
- Character [P3P] 02-27-2001
- Strings consist of a sequence of zero or more
characters, where a character is defined as in the XML Recommendation
[XML]. A single character in P3P thus corresponds to a single Unicode
abstract character with a single corresponding Unicode scalar value
(see [UNICODE]).
- Characters [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
(PDF-Tech) 12-14-2000
- A character is a printable symbol having phonetic or
pictographic meaning and usually forming part of a word of text,
depicting a numeral, or expressing grammatical punctuation. A character
is generally one of a limited number of symbols, including the letters
of a particular language's alphabet, the numerals in the decimal number
system, and certain special symbols such as the ampersand and "atsign"
@. Several standards of computer encoding have been developed for
characters. The most commonly used in personal computers is ASCII. IBM
mainframe systems use extended binary-coded decimal interchange code. A
new standard, Unicode, is supported by the
Windows NT system. A distinction is sometimes made between a character
and a glyph. In this distinction, a character can be distinguished from
other characters in terms of meaning and sound and a glyph is the graphic image used to portray the
character. In different implementations, a character can have more than
one possible glyph, and a glyph can represent more than one possible
character.
- Character Codes [WCAG10]
[WCAG20] (PDF-Tech) 12-13-2000
- (a la Loretta)A show string is the encoded re of a
sequence of non-negative integers. Each of those integers is a
Character Code. The interpretation of a show string depends on the
associated font: some fonts imply a one-byte re whie others imply a
more complicated re.
A mapping from a set of integers to a set of characters. This mapping
is generally 1:1 (i.e., bijective), for example, the code position 65 in ASCII maps only
to "A", and it's the only position that maps to "A". There are several
standard coded character sets, the most widely used is ASCII, generally
in its Latin-1 dialect (the ASCII coded character set, encoded directly
as single-byte values), or UTF-8 (the Unicode coded character set,
encoded with an 8-bit transformation method), with Unicode becoming
slowly more common; while EBCDIC and Baudot are extinct except in
legacy systems. A coded character set may include letters, digits,
punctuation, control codes, various mathematical and typographic
symbols, and other characters. Each character in the set is represented
by a unique character code (or "code position").
- Character Encoding
[WD-UAAG10-20010409] 05-05-2001
- A "character encoding" is a mapping from a character
set definition to the actual code units used to represent the data.
Please refer to the Unicode specification [UNICODE] for more
information about character encodings. Refer to "Character Model for
the World Wide Web" [CHARMOD] for additional
information about characters and character encodings.
- Check for
[ATAG10]
- As used in checkpoint
4.1, "check for" can refer to three types of checking:
- In some instances, an authoring tool will be able to check for
accessibility problems automatically.
Example: Checking for validity ( checkpoint 2.2) or
testing whether an image is the only content of a link.
- In some cases, the tool will be able to "suspect" or "guess" that
there is a problem, but will need confirmation from the author.
Example: In making sure that a
sensible reading order is preserved a tool can present a linearized
version of a page to the author.
- In some cases, a tool must rely mostly on the author, and can
only ask the author to check.
Example: The tool may prompt the
author to verify that equivalent alternatives for multimedia are
appropriate. This is the minimal standard to be satisfied. Subtle,
rather than extensive, prompting is more likely to be effective in
encouraging the author to verify accessibility where it cannot be
done automatically.
- Class [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]
- A Beginning...01-01-25 A
description or template of an object that describes the
responsibilities, the operations, and the state, which can then be used
to create instancess.
Example: A Car class, which could be
used as the template for instances of a class such as myGreyHonda or
yourPurpleBeetle.
- Client 05-07-2001Generic - Dept of
Computing Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/
- A computer system or process that requests a service
of another computer system or process (a "server") using some kind of
protocol and accepts the server's responses. A client is part of a
client-server software architecture.
Example: A workstation requesting the
contents of a file from a file server is a client of the file
server.
- Client [CC/PP] 04-23-2001
- An entity that is the original compositor of a CC/PP
profile.
- Client 05-07-2001
- @@
- Client-side
Scripting [WCAG20] [Script Techniques] 03-17-2002 NCI National Cancer
Institute
- See also Scripting
- Web programming that sends instructions for actions
to be performed on the client, or user's, computer, such as changing
the appearance of a page in the user's browser. In order to display the
page or change as intended, the user's system must be able to recognize
and process the programming.
- Clipping Path
[SVG10] 02-02-2001
- Is a combination of 'path', 'text' and basic shapes
which serve as the outline of a (in the absense of antialiasing) 1-bit
mask, where everything on the "inside" of the outline is allowed to
show through but everything on the outside is masked out. See Clipping
paths.
- CMap [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
(PDF-Tech) 01-08-2001
- A CMap specifies the mapping from character codes to
character selectors (CIDs, character names, or character codes) in one
or more associated fonts or CIDFonts. It serves a function analogous to
the Encoding dictionary for a simple font. A Cmap also specifies the
writing mode - horizontal or vertical - for any CIDFont with which the
CMap is combined.
Also a CMap (character map) file specifies the correspondence between
character codes and the CID (character identifier) numbers used to
identify characters. For composite (Type 0) fonts, it is the equivalent
to the concept of an encoding in a simple font. A CMap can describe a
mapping from multiple-byte codes to thousands of characters in a large
CID-keyed font.
- Cognitive and Neurological
Disabilities[PWD-Use-Web1] 03-19-2001 "How People w/dis
Use the Web"
- Dyslexia, Dyscalculia
- Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD
- Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, or ADHD
- Impairments of Intelligence, or Learning Disabilities
- Memory Impairments
- Mental Health Disabilities
- Seizure Disorders
- Collated Text
Transcript [UAAG10]
- A collated text transcript is a text
equivalents of a movie or animation. More specifically, it
is the combination of the text transcript of the auditory track
and the text equivalent of the visual track.
Example: A collated text transcript
typically includes segments of spoken dialogue interspersed with text
descriptions of the key visual elements of a presentation (actions, body language,
graphics, and scene changes). Refer also to the definitions of text
transcript and auditory description. Collated text
transcripts are essential for individuals who are deaf-blind.
- Color
Blindness[PWD-Use-Web1] 03-19-2001 "How People w/dis
Use the Web"
- Color blindness is a lack of sensitivity to certain
colors. Common forms of color blindness include difficulty
distinguishing between red and green, or between yellow and blue.
Sometimes color blindness results in the inability to perceive any
color.
- Column Headers [WCAG10]
[WCAG20] (PDF-Tech) NEEDS TERM
01-23-2001
- @@
- Computed Expression
[XFORMS10] 07-15-2001
- An XPath expression used by model item properties
such as relevant and calculate to include dynamic functionality in
XForms
- Concatenate [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
(PDF-Tech) 12-13-2000
- To combine character strings, to join together two
or more files or lists to form one big one.
Example: The Unix cat command can be
used to concatenate files.
- Concatenation [WCAG10]
[WCAG20] 01-25-2001
- The operation of constructing a large string from
two smaller strings. The result of a concatenation will have all the
contents of both smaller strings.
- Conditional-content
[WD-UAAG10-20010409] 05-05-2001
- Conditional content is content that, by
specification, should be made available to users through the user
interface, generally under certain conditions (e.g., user preferences
or operating environment limitations). Some examples of conditional content mechanisms
include:
- The "
alt" attribute of the IMG element
in HTML 4. According to section
13.2 of the HTML 4 specification ([HTML4]): "User agents
must render alternate text when they cannot support images, they
cannot support a certain image type or when they are configured not
to display images."
OBJECT elements in HTML 4. Section
13.3.1 of the HTML 4 specification ([HTML4]) explains the
conditional rendering rules of (nested) OBJECT
elements.- The
switch element and test attributes in SMIL 1.0.
Sections 4.3
and 4.4,
respectively, of SMIL 1.0 [SMIL] explain the
conditional rendering rules of these features.
- SVG 1.0 [SVG] also includes a
switch element and several attributes for conditional
processing.
- The
NOSCRIPT and NOFRAMES elements in
HTML 4 [HTML4] allow the author
to provide content under conditions when the user agent does not
support scripts or frames, or the user has turned off support for
scripts or frames.
Specifications vary in how completely they define how and when to
render conditional content. For instance, the HTML 4 specification
includes the rendering conditions for the "alt" attribute,
but not for the "title" attribute. The HTML 4
specification does indicate that the "title" attribute
should be available to users through the user interface ("Values of the
title attribute may be rendered by user agents in a variety of
ways...").
Note: The Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines 1.0 requires that authors provide text equivalents for
non-text content. This is generally done by using the conditional
content mechanisms of a markup language. Since conditional content may
not be rendered by default, the current document requires the user
agent to provide access to unrendered conditional content (checkpoint 2.3 and
checkpoint
2.9) as it may have been provided to promote accessibility.
- Configure and Control
[UAAG10]
- In the context of this [UA] document, both the terms
"control" and "configure" share in common the idea of governance such
as a user may exercise over interface layout,user agent behavior, rendering style, and
other parameters required by this [UA] document. Generally, the
difference in the terms centers on the idea of persistence.
When a user makes a change by "controlling" a setting, that change
usually does not persist beyond that user session. On the other hand,
when a user "configures" a setting, that setting typically persists
into later user sessions. Furthermore, the term "control" typically
means that the change can be made easily (such as through a keyboard
shortcut) and that the results of the change occur immediately, whereas
the term "configure" typically means that making the change requires
more time and effort (such as making the change via a series of menus
leading to a dialog box, via style sheets or scripts, etc.) and that
the results of the change may not take effect immediately (e.g., due to
time spent reinitializing the system, initiating a new session,
rebooting the system). Configuration settings may be stored in a profile. The range and granularity of
the changes that can be controlled or configured by the user may depend
on the operating environment, or hardware
limitations.
- Both configuration and control may apply at
different "levels": across web
resources (i.e., at the level, or inherited from the operating environment), to the entirety
of a Web resource, or to components of a Web resource (e.g., on a
per-element basis).
Example: Users may configure the to
apply the same font family across Web resources, so that all text
content is displayed by default using that font family. Or, the user
may wish to configure the rendering of a particular element type, which
may be done through style sheets. Or, the user may wish to control the
text size dynamically (zooming in and out) for a given document,
without affecting the Web resource-level configuration. Or, the user
may wish to control the text size dynamically for a given element,
e.g., by navigating to the element and zooming in on it.
- Note: In this [UA] document, the noun
"control" means "user interface component" or "form component".
- Conformance [WCAG10]
[WCAG20] 01-11-2001 NEEDS TERM 01-23-2001
- @@
- Container Element
[SVG10] 02-02-2001
- An element which can have graphics elements and
other container elements as child elements. Specifically: 'svg', 'g',
'defs' 'symbol', 'clipPath', 'mask', 'pattern', 'marker', 'a' and
'switch'.
- Containing Document
[XFORMS10] 07-15-2001
- A specific document, for example an XHTML document, in which one or more
xform elements are found
- Content [ATAG10]
- In this specification, the term "content" is used in
two ways:
- Content refers to the document object as a whole or in
parts. Phrases such as "content type", "text content", and
"language of content" refer to this usage. When used in this sense,
the term content encompasses equivalent alternatives. Refer also
to the definition of rendered content. and other
accessibility information.
- Content refers to the content of an HTML or XML element, in the
sense employed by the XML 1.0 specification ( XML, section 3.1): "The text
between the start-tag and end-tag is called the element's content."
Context should indicate that the term content is being used in this
sense.
- Content [UAAG10] 01-25-2001
- In this specification, the term "content" is used in
three ways:
- Content refers to the document object as a whole or in
parts. Phrases such as "content type", "text content", and
"language of content" refer to this usage. When used in this sense,
the term content encompasses equivalent alternatives. Refer also
to the definition of rendered content. and other
accessibility information.
- Content refers to the content of an HTML or XML element, in the
sense employed by the XML 1.0 specification ( XML, section 3.1): "The text
between the start-tag and end-tag is called the element's content."
Context should indicate that the term content is being used in this
sense.
- Content is used in the context of the phrases non-text content
and text content.
- Content Model
[DOM2] 03-10-2001
- The content model is a simple grammar governing the
allowed types of the child elements and the order in which they appear.
See Element Content in XML [XML].
- Content Negotiation
[CC/PP] 03-10-2001
- The mechanism for selecting the appropriate
representation when servicing a request. The representation of entities
in any response can be negotiated (including error responses).
- Context [DOM2] 03-10-2001
- A context specifies an access pattern (or path): a
set of interfaces which give you a way to interact with a model.
Example: Imagine a model with different
colored arcs connecting data nodes. A context might be a sheet of
colored acetate that is placed over the model allowing you a partial
view of the total information in the model.
- Contrast 11-13-2001 Human Factors and
Ergonomics Society
- A difference in visual attributes (e.g., hue,
lightness, saturation) of an object's foreground and background.
- Control [UAAG10]
- See Configure UA
- Conversion Tool
[ATAG10]
- A "conversion tool" is any application or
application feature (e.g., "Save as HTML") that transforms convent in
one format to another format (such as a markup language).
- Cookie 03-24-2001 Web Characterization
Terminology & Definitions Sheet
- Data sent by a Web server to a Web client, to be
stored locally by the client and sent back to the server on subsequent
requests.
- Country Code 03-11-2001 RFC2828
- An identifier that is defined for a nation by ISO.
For each nation, ISO Standard 3166 defines a unique two- character
alphabetic code, a unique three-character alphabetic code, and a
three-digit code. Among many uses of these codes, the two-character
codes are used as top-level domain names.
- Crop Box [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
(PDF-Tech)01-08-2001
- The crop box defines the region to which the
contents of the page are to be clipped (cropped) when displayed or
printed.
- CTM [SVG10]
- See Current Transformation
Matrix SVG
- Current Innermost SVG
Document Target [SVG10] 02-02-2001
- The XML document sub-tree which starts with the most
immediate ancestor 'svg' element of a given SVG element
- Current SVG Document
Fragment [SVG10] 02-02-2001
- The XML document sub-tree which starts with the
outermost ancestor 'svg' element of a given SVG element, with the
requirement that all container elements between the outermost 'svg' and
this element are all elements in the SVG language
- Current Selection
[UAAG10]
- See Selection UA
- Current Transformation Matrix
(CTM) [SVG10] 02-02-2001
- Transformation matrices define the mathematical
mapping from one coordinate system into another using a 3x3 matrix
using the equation [x' y' 1] = [x y 1] * matrix. The current
transformation matrix (CTM) defines the mapping from the user
coordinate system into the viewport coordinate system.
- Current User Selection
[ATAG10-TECHS][ATAG-Wombat] 08-25-2001
- When several views co-exist, each may have a
selection, but only one is active, called the "current user selection."
User selections may be rendered specially (e.g., graphically
highlighted).
- Current Viewport
[UAAG10]
- See Views, viewports,
and current viewport UA.
- Data 03-12-2001 GENERIC
RFC2828
- Information in a specific physical representation,
usually a sequence of symbols that have meaning; especially a
representation of information that can be processed or produced by a
computer.
- Data Category
[P3P] 02-27-2001
- A significant attribute of a data element or data
set that may be used by a trust engine to determine what type of
element is under discussion, such as physical contact information.
P3P1.0 specifies a set of data categories.
- Data Element [P3P]
02-27-2001
- An individual data entity, such as last name or
telephone number. For interoperability, P3P1.0 specifies a base set of
data elements.
- Data Model[WCAG10]
[WCAG20] NEEDS WORK 01-23-2001
- The product of the database design process which
aims to to identify and organize the required data logically and
physically. A data model says what information is to be contained in a
database, how the information will be used, and how the items in the
database will be related to each other.
Example: A data model might specify
that a customer is represented by a customer name and credit card
number and a product as a product code and price, and that there is a
one-to-many relation between a customer and a product. It can be
difficult to change a database layout once code has been written and
data inserted. A well thought-out data model reduces the need for such
changes. Data modelling enhances application maintainability and future
systems may re-use parts of existing models, which should lower
development costs. A data modelling language is a mathematical
formalism with a notation for describing data structures and a set of
operations used to manipulate and validate that data. One of the most
widely used methods for developing data models is the
entity-relationship model. The relational model is the most widely used
type of data model. Another example is
NIAM.
- Data Model [DOM1]
03-10-2001
- A data model is a collection of descriptions of data
structures and their contained fields, together with the operations or
functions that manipulate them.
- Data Set [P3P] 02-27-2001
- A known grouping of data elements, such as
"user.home.postal". The P3P1.0 base data schema specifies a number of
data sets.
- Data Set GENERIC 03-17-2001 Dublin Core Def.
- A dataset is information encoded in a defined
structure (for example, lists, tables, and
databases), intended to be useful for direct machine processing
- Data Tables [WCAG10]
[WCAG20] NEEDS TERM 01-23-2001
- @@
- Datatype [XFORMS10]
07-15-2001
- A 3-tuple, consisting of:
- a set of distinct values, called its value space,
- a set of lexical representations, called its lexical space,
and
- a set of facets that characterize properties of the value space,
individual values or lexical items.
- Note: This definition is
taken from XML Schema [XML Schema part 2]
- Deprecated [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]
- A deprecated element or attribute is one that has
been outdated by newer constructs. Deprecated elements may become
obsolete in future versions of HTML. The [WCAG10-TECHS] index of HTML
elements and attributes in the Techniques Document indicates which
elements and attributes are deprecated in HTML 4.0.
- Authors should avoid using deprecated elements and
attributes. User agents should continue to support for reasons of
backward compatibility.
- Device-dependent
[WCAG20] [Script Techniques] 03-17-2002
NCI National Cancer Institute
- Used to describe event handlers that require a
specific kind of input device. For example, onDblClick requires a
mouse; there is no keyboard equivalent for double clicking. Input
devices may include pointing devices (such as the mouse), keyboards,
braille devices, head wands, microphones, and others. Output devices
may include monitors, speech synthesizers, and braille devices.
Scripting should be device-independent or provide multiple input and
output options for different devices.
- Device Independent
[WCAG10] [WCAG20]
- Users must be able to interact with a (and the document it renders) using the
supported input and output devices of their choice and according to
their needs. Input devices may include pointing devices, keyboards,
braille devices, head wands, microphones, and others. Output devices
may include monitors, speech synthesizers, and braille devices.
- Note: That
"device-independent support" does not mean that s must support every
input or output device. User agents should offer redundant input and
output mechanisms for those devices that are supported.
Example: If a supports keyboard and
mouse input, users should be able to interact with all features using
either the keyboard or the mouse.
- Device-independence
[UAAG10]
- Device-independence refers to the ability to make
use of software with any supported input or output device. User agents
should follow operating system conventions and use standard system API's for input and output.
- Description Link (D-link)
[ATAG10] 01-25-2001
- A "description link", or D-Link, is an
author-supplied link to additional information about a piece of content
that might otherwise be difficult to access (image, applet, video,
etc.).
- Digital
Signature 04-13-2001 Weaving the Web GLOSSARY, Tim
- A very large number created in such a way that it
can be shown to have been done only by somebody in possession of a
secret key and only by processing a document with a particular content.
It can be used for the same purposes as a person's handwritten
signature on a physical document. Something you can do with public key
cryptography.
- Document [ATAG10]
- A "document" is a series of elements that are
defined by a markup
language (e.g., HTML 4 or an XML application).
- Document Character Set
[UAAG10] Draft 02-03-2001
- A document character set (an concept taken from
SGML) is a sequence of abstract characters that may appear in Web
content represented in a particular format (such as HTML, XML, etc.). A
document character set consists of:
- a "repertoire", A set of abstract characters, such as the Latin
letter "A", the Cyrillic letter "I", the Chinese character meaning
"water", etc.
- Code positions: A set of integer references to characters in the
repertoire.
For instance, the character set required by the HTML 4 specification
HTML 4 is
defined in the Unicode specification UNICODE. Refer to "Character
Model for the World Wide Web" CHARMOD for more information
about document character sets.
- Document Content, Structure, and
Presentation [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
- The content of a document refers to what it says to
the user through natural language, images, sounds, movies, animations,
etc. The structure of a document is how it is organized logically
(e.g., by chapter, with an introduction and table of contents, etc.).
An element (e.g., P, STRONG,
BLOCKQUOTE in HTML) that specifies document structure is called a structural
element. The presentation of a document is how the document is
rendered (e.g., as print, as a two-dimensional graphical , as an
text-only , as synthesized speech, as braille, etc.) An element that
specifies document (e.g., B, FONT, CENTER) is called a presentation element.
- Consider a document header, for example:. The content of the header is what the
header says (e.g., "Sailboats"). In HTML, the header is a structural
element marked up with.
Example:, an H2 element. Finally, the
of the header might be a bold block text in the margin, a centered line
of text, a title spoken with a certain voice style (like an aural
font), etc.
- Document
Object, Document Object Model
[UAAG10]
- The document object is the user agent's representation of data (e.g.,
a document). This data generally comes from the document source, but may also be
generated (from style sheets, scripts, transformations, etc.) or
produced as a result of preferences set within the user agent. Some data that is part of the
document object is routinely rendered (e.g., in HTML, what appears
between the start and end tags of elements and the values of attributes
such as "alt", "title", and "summary"). Other parts of the document
object are generally processed invisibly by the ??, such as DTD-defined names of element
types and attributes, and other attribute values such as "href", "id",
etc. These guidelines require that users have access to both types of
data through the user interface.
- A "document object model" is the abstraction that governs the
construction of the user agent's document object. The document object
model employed by different user agents may vary in implementation and
sometimes in scope. This specification requires that user agents
implement the APIs defined in Document Object Model
(DOM) Level 2 Specifications ([DOM2CORE] and [DOM2STYLE]) for access
to HTML, XML, and
CSS content. These DOM APIs allow authors to access
and modify the content via a scripting language (e.g., JavaScript) in a
consistent manner across different scripting languages. As a standard
interface, the DOM APIs make it easier not just for authors, but for
assistive technology developers to extract information and render it in
ways most suited to the needs of particular users.
- Document
Object, Document Object Model
[UAAG10]
- The document object is the 's re of data (e.g., a document). This
data generally comes from the document source, but may also be
generated (from style sheets, scripts, transformations, etc.) or
produced as a result of preferences set within the user agent. Some data that is part of the
document object is routinely rendered (e.g., in HTML, what appears
between the start and end tags of elements and the values of attributes
such as "alt", "title", and "summary"). Other parts of the document
object are generally processed invisibly by the ??, such as DTD-defined names of element
types and attributes, and other attribute values such as "href", "id",
etc. These guidelines require that users have access to both types of
data through the user interface.
- A document object model is the abstraction that governs the
construction of the 's document object. The document object model
employed by different s will vary in implementation and sometimes in
scope. Nevertheless, this [UA] document calls for developers of s to
adhere to the W3C
Document Object Model (DOM),
which specifies a standard interface for accessing HTML and XML
content. This standard interface allows authors to access and modify
the document with a scripting language (e.g., JavaScript) in a
consistent manner across different scripting languages. As a standard
interface, use of a W3C DOM makes it easier not just for authors but
for assistive technology developers to extract information and render
it in ways most suited to the needs of particular users. The relevant
W3C DOM Recommendations are listed in the references. In this specification, the acronym
"DOM" refers to the W3C DOM.
- Document
Source, Document Source View
[UAAG10]NEW INFO 02-03-2001
- In this document, the term "document source" refers
to the data that the user agent receives as the direct result of a
request for a Web
resource (e.g., as the result of an HTTP/1.1 RFC2616]
"GET", as the result of opening a local resource, etc.). A "document
source view" generally renders the document source as text written in
the markup language(s) used to build it. The document source is
generally a subset of the document object (e.g., since the
document object may include repair content).
- Document Tree [CSS1]
[CSS2] 02-03-2001
- The tree of elements encoded in the source document.
Each element in this tree has exactly one parent, with the exception of
the root element, which has none.
- Documentation
[ATAG10]
- Documentation refers to all
information provided by the vendor about a product, including all
product manuals, installation instructions, the help system, and
tutorials.
- Documents, Elements, and
Attributes [UAAG10]02-03-2001
- A document may be seen as a hierarchy of elements.
Element types are defined by a language specification (e.g., HTML 4.0
or an XML application). Elements may include content, which generally
contributes to the document's content. Elements may also have
attributes that take values.
- DOM NEW
- See Document
Object Model UA, and DOM
1
- DTD's,
Documents Definition Types 02-04-2001
- A document may be seen as a hierarchy of elements.
Element types are defined by a language specification (e.g., HTML 4.0
or an XML application). Elements may include content, which generally
contributes to the document's content. Elements may also have
attributes that take values. A set of rules that defines how a
document's markup may be used. Think of a DTD as setting the semantic
rules of the document type it is associated with.
- Dynamic Content
[CC/PP] 03-10-2001
- Content that is generated in response to a request.
This may be used for content that depends on changing environmental
factors such as time (e.g., stock quotes) or place (e.g., nearby gas
stations).
- Dynamic HTML (DHTML) [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]
- DHTML is the
marketing term applied to a mixture of standards including HTML, style sheets, the Document Object Model
DOM 1 and
scripting. However, there is no W3C specification that formally defines
DHTML. Most guidelines may be applicable to applications using DHTML,
however the following guidelines focus on issues related to scripting
and style sheets: WC
guideline 1, WC
guideline 3, WC
guideline 6, WC
guideline 7, and WC
guideline 9.
- Dyslexia,
Dyscalculia[PWD-Use-Web1] 03-19-2001 "How People w/dis
Use the Web"
- Individuals with dyslexia or dyscalculia (one of the
so-called "learning disabilities" in the U.S.) may have difficulty
processing written language or images when read visually, or spoken
language when heard, or numbers when read visually or heard.
- Editing View
[ATAG10]
- An "editing view" is a view provided by the authoring tool
that allows editing.
- Element [ATAG10]
- An "element" is any identifiable object within a
document, for example, a character, word,
image, paragraph or spreadsheet cell. In HTML4.01 and XML, an element refers to a pair of
tags and their content, or an "empty" tag - one that requires no
closing tag or content.
- Element [UAAG10]
- This document uses the term "element" both in the
XML sense (an element is a syntactic construct as described in the XML
1.0 specification XML, section 3) and more generally to
mean a type of content (such as video or sound) or a logical construct
(such as a header or list).
- Element [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]
- This document uses the term "element" both in the
strict SGML sense (an element is a syntactic construct) and more
generally to mean a type of content (such as video or sound) or a
logical construct (such as a header or list). The second sense
emphasizes that a guideline inspired by HTML could easily apply to
another markup language.
- Note: That some (SGML)
elements have content that is rendered (e.g., the P, LI, or TABLE
elements in HTML), some are replaced by external content (e.g., IMG),
and some affect processing (e.g., STYLE and SCRIPT cause information to
be processed by a style sheet or script engine). An element that causes
text characters to be part of the document is called a text element.
- Element [CSS1] [CSS2]
01-23-2001
- (An SGML term, see [ISO8879].) The primary syntactic
constructs of the document language. Most CSS style sheet rules use the
names of these elements (such as "P", "TABLE", and "OL" for HTML) to
specify rendering information for them.
- Element XML, XHTML
02-04-2001
- An element is a document structuring unit declared
in the DTD. The element's content model is defined in the DTD, and
additional semantics may be defined in the prose description of the
element. The proper name for XML tags and the content they contain.
Example:
<tag>content</tag>
- Embedded 12-29-2001
- Needs definition.............
- Embedded
Devices 12-29-2001
- Needs definition.............
- Enabled-element, Disabled
element [WD-UAAG10-20010409] 05-05-2001
- An enabled element is a piece of content with associated behaviors that
may be activated through the user interface or through an API. The set of elements that a user
agent enables is generally derived from, but is not limited to, the set
of interactive elements defined by
implemented markup languages.
Some elements may only be enabled elements for part of a user
session. For instance, an element may be disabled by a script as the
result of user interaction. Or, an element may only be enabled during a
given time period (e.g., during part of a SMIL 1.0 [SMIL]
presentation). Or, the user may be viewing content in "read-only" mode,
which may disable some elements.
A disabled element is a piece of content that is not an enabled
element.
For the requirements of this document, user selection does not constitute user
interaction with enabled elements. See the definition of content
focus.
Note: Enabled and disabled elements come
from content; they are not part of the user agent user interface.
Note: The term "active element" is not
used in this document since it may suggest several different concepts,
including: interactive element, enabled element, an element "in the
process of being activated" (which is the meaning of ':active' in CSS2
[CSS2], for example).
- Entity XML, XHTML 02-04-2001
- Entities allow you to use reserved markup
characters, for example, the greater than
sign (>), in your document without having the parser read them as
markup
- Equivalent [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]
- Content is "equivalent" to other content when both
fulfill essentially the same function or purpose upon to the user. In
the context of this WC document, the equivalent must fulfill
essentially the same function for the person with a disability (at
least insofar as is feasible, given the nature of the disability and
the state of technology), as the primary content does for the person
without any disability.
Example:, the text "The Full Moon"
might convey the same information as an image of a full moon when
presented to users.
Note: that equivalent information focuses
on fulfilling the same function. If the image is part
of a link and understanding the image is crucial to guessing the link
target, an equivalent must also give users an idea of the link target.
Providing equivalent information for inaccessible content is one of the
primary ways authors can make their documents accessible to people with
disabilities.
- As part of fulfilling the same function of content
an equivalent may involve a description of that content (i.e., what the
content looks like or sounds like).
Example:, in order for users to
understand the information conveyed by a complex chart, authors should
describe the visual information in the chart.
- Since text content can be presented to the user as
synthesized speech, braille, and visually-displayed text, these
guidelines require text
equivalents for graphic and audio information. Text
equivalents must be written so that they convey all essential content.
Non-text
equivalents (e.g., an auditory description of a
visual presentation, a video of a
person telling a story using sign language as an equivalent for a
written story, etc.) also improve accessibility for people who cannot
access visual information or written text, including many individuals
with blindness, cognitive disabilities, learning disabilities, and
deafness.
- Equivalent information may be provided in a number of ways, including
through attributes (e.g., a text value for the "alt" attribute in HTML
and SMIL), as part of element content (e.g., the OBJECT in HTML), as
part of the document's prose, or via a linked document (e.g.,
designated by the "longdesc" attribute in HTML or a description link). Depending on the
complexity of the equivalent, it may be necessary to combine techniques
(e.g., use "alt" for an abbreviated equivalent, useful to familiar
readers, in addition to "longdesc" for a link to more complete
information, useful to first-time readers). The details of how and when
to provide equivalent information are part of the Techniques Document (
WCAG10-TECHS).
- A text transcript
is a text equivalent of audio information that includes spoken words
and non-spoken sounds such as sound effects. A caption is a text
transcript for theaudio
tracks of a video presentation that is synchronized with the
video and audio tracks. Captions are generally rendered visually by
being superimposed over the video, which benefits people who are deaf
and hard-of-hearing, and anyone who cannot hear the audio (e.g., when
in a crowded room). A collated text
transcript combines (collates) captions with text
descriptions of video information (descriptions of the actions, body
language, graphics, and scene changes of the video track). These text
equivalents make s accessible to people who are deaf-blind and to
people who cannot play movies, animations, etc. It also makes the
information available to search engines.
- One example of a non-text equivalent is an auditory
description of the key visual elements of a presentation. The description is either
a prerecorded human voice or a synthesized voice (recorded or generated
on the fly). The auditory description is synchronized with the audio
track of the , usually during natural pauses in the audio track.
Auditory descriptions include information about actions, body language,
graphics, and scene changes.
- Equivalent (for Content)
[UAAG10] Draft 02-03-2001
- In the context of this document, an equivalency
relationship between two pieces of content means that one piece -- the
"equivalent" -- is able to serve essentially the same function for a
person with a disability (at least insofar as is feasible, given the
nature of the disability and the state of technology) as the other
piece -- the "equivalency
target" -- does for a person without any disability.
Example: The text "The Full Moon" might
convey the same information as an image of a full moon when presented
to users. If the image is part of a link and understanding the image is
crucial to guessing the link target, then the equivalent must also give
users an idea of the link target. Thus, an equivalent is provided to
fulfill the same function as the equivalency target.
Equivalents include text
equivalents (e.g., text equivalents for images; text
transcripts for audio tracks; collated text transcripts for multimedia
presentations and animations) and non-text equivalents (e.g., a
prerecorded auditory description of a visual track of a movie, or a
sign language video rendition of a written text, etc.). Please refer to
the definitions of text
content and non-text content for more
information.
- Each markup language defines its own mechanisms for
specifying equivalents. For instance, in HTML 4 HTML 4 or SMIL 1.0 SMIL, authors may
use the "alt" attribute to specify a text equivalent for some elements.
In HTML 4, authors may provide equivalents (or portions of equivalents)
in attribute values (e.g., the "summary" attribute for the TABLE
element), in element content (e.g., OBJECT for external content it
specifies, NOFRAMES for frame equivalents, and NOSCRIPT for script
equivalents), and in prose. Please consult the Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 WCAG 1.0 and its associated
Techniques document WCAG 1.0-TECHS for more
information about equivalents.
- Equivalent
Alternative [ATAG10]
- See Alternative
Information [ATAG10]
- Equivalent Alternatives for
Content [UAAG10] 02-03-2001
- Since content in some forms is not always
accessible to users with disabilities, authors must provide equivalent
alternatives for inaccessible content. In the context of this [UA]
document, the equivalent must fulfill essentially the same function for
the person with a disability (at least insofar as is feasible, given
the nature of the disability and the state of technology), as the
"primary" content does for the person without any disability.
Example: The text "The Full Moon" might
convey the same information as an image of a full moon when presented
to users.
Note: That equivalent information focuses
on fulfilling the same function. If the image is part of a link and
understanding the image is crucial to guessing the link target, an
equivalent must also give users an idea of the link target.
- Equivalent alternatives of content include text
equivalents (long and short, synchronized and
unsynchronized) and non-text equivalents (e.g., an auditory description, or a visual track
that shows a sign language translation of a written text, etc.). Please
also consult the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 WCAG 1.0 and its associated
Techniques document WCAG 1.0-TECHS.
- Each markup language defines its own mechanisms for
specifying equivalent alternatives. For instance, in HTML 4.01 HTML 4.01
or SMIL 1.0 SMIL, the "alt" attribute specifies
alternative text for many elements. In HTML 4.01, authors may provide
alternatives in attribute values (e.g., the "summary" attribute for the
TABLE element), in element content (e.g., OBJECT for external content
it specifies, NOFRAMES for frame alternatives, and NOSCRIPT for script
alternatives), and in prose.
- Note: That some (SGML)
elements have content that is rendered (e.g., the P, LI, or TABLE
elements in HTML), some are replaced by external content (e.g., IMG),
and some affect processing (e.g., STYLE and SCRIPT cause information to
be processed by a style sheet or script engine). An element that causes
text characters to be part of the document is called a text element.
- Event [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
A Beginning...01-25-2001
- An event can be some action taken by the user, some
condition that occurs in the operating system, or some condition
occurring over a network. A user event might be pressing the Enter key;
an OS event might be the system time reaching some preset value; a
network event might be the completion of a file download.
- Event GENERIC 03-17-2001 Dublin Core Def.
- An event is a non-persistent, time-based occurrence.
Metadata for an event provides descriptive information that is the
basis for discovery of the purpose, location, duration, responsible
agents, and links to related events and resources. The resource of type
event may not be retrievable if the described instantiation has expired
or is yet to occur.
Examples:
Exhibition, web-cast, conference, workshop, open-day, performance,
battle, trial, wedding, tea-party, conflagration.
- Event Handlers [WCAG20]
[Script Techniques] 03-17-2002 NCI National Cancer Institute
- An event handler is a script that is invoked when a
certain event occurs (e.g, the mouse moves, a key is pressed, the
document is loaded, etc.). In HTML 4.01, event handlers are attached to
elements via event handler attributes (the attributes beginning with
"on", as in "onkeyup"). An event handler might produce a purely
decorative effect, such as changing the color of an image when the
mouse is passed over it, or it might perform more important functions,
such as changing the number of items in a shopping cart when a button
is clicked or opening a new window.
- Events and Scripting, Event
Handler [UAAG10]
- User agents often perform a task when a certain
event occurs, caused by user interaction (e.g., mouse motion or a key
press), a request from the operating system, etc. Some markup languages
allow authors to specify that a script, called an event
handler, be executed when a specific event occurs,
such as document loading and unloading, mouse press or hover events,
keyboard events, and other user interface events.
- Note: The combination of
HTML, style sheets, the Document Object Model
(DOM), and scripting is commonly referred
to as "Dynamic HTML" or DHTML. However, as there is no W3C
specification that formally defines DHTML, this UA document only refers
to event handlers and scripts.
- Expansion [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
(PDF-Tech) NEEDS TERM
01-23-2001
- @@
- Explicit User
Request [UAAG10] 01-25-2001
- In several checkpoints in this document, the term
"explicit user request" is used to mean any user interaction recognized
with certainty to be for a specific purpose. For instance, when the
user selects "New viewport" in the user agent's user interface, this is
an explicit user request for a new viewport. On the other hand, it is
not an explicit request when the user activates a link and that link
has been marked up by the author to open a new viewport (since the user
may not know that a new viewport will open). Nor is it an explicit user
request even if the link text states "will open a new viewport". Some
other examples of explicit user requests include "yes" responses to
prompts from the user agent, configuration through the user agent's
user interface, activation of known form submit controls, and link
activation (which should not be assumed to mean more than "get this
linked resource", even if the link text or title or role indicates
more). Some examples of behaviors that happen without explicit user
request include changes due to scripts.
- Note: Users make mistakes.
Example: A user may submit a form
inadvertently by activating a known form submit control. In this
document, this type of mistake is still considered an explicit user
request.
- Extreme Changes in
Context [WCAG10] [WCAG20] 03-12-001 NEEDS TERM al la
plenary
- @@
- Facet [XFORMS10] 07-15-2001
- A single defining aspect of a value space. Generally
speaking, each facet characterizes a value space along independent axes
or dimensions. This definition is taken from XML Schema [XML Schema
part 2]
- Facilities XML,
XHTML 02-04-2001
- Functionality includes elements, attributes, and the
semantics associated with those elements and attributes. An
implementation supporting that functionality is said to provide the
necessary facilities
- Fee Link [UAAG10]
Draft 02-03-2001
- For the purpose of this document, the term "fee
link" refers to a link that when activated, debits the user's
electronic "wallet" (generally, a "micropayment"). The link's role as a
fee link must be identified through markup in a manner that the user
agent can recognize. This definition of fee link
excludes payment mechanisms (e.g., some form-based credit card
transactions) that cannot be recognized by the user agent as causing
payments. For more information about fee links, refer to "Common Markup
for micropayment per-fee-links" MICROPAYMENT.
- Fill [SVG10] 02-02-2001
- The operation of painting the interior of a shape or
the interior of the character glyphs in a text string.
- Focus [ATAG10] 01-25-2001
- The "focus" designates the active element (e.g.,
link, form control, element with associated scripts, etc.) in a view
that will react when the user next interacts with the document.
- Focus, Content
Focus, User Interface Focus,
Current
Focus [UAAG10]
- See also Pointer Focus
- The notion of focus refers to two identifying
mechanisms of focus:
- The "content focus" designates an active element in a document. A
viewport has at most one content focus.
- The "user interface focus" designates a control of the user
interface that will respond to user input (e.g., a radio button,
text box, menu, etc.).
- The term "focus" encompasses both types of focus. Where one is meant
specifically in this [UA] document, it is identified.
- When several viewports coexist, each may have a
content and user interface focus. At all times, only one content focus
or one user interface focus is active, called the
current focus. The current focus responds to user input and may be
toggled between content focus and user interface focus through the
keyboard, pointing device, etc. Both the content and user interface
focus may be highlighted. Refer also to the definition of point of regard.
- Focus Cursor 11-13-2001 Human Factors and
Ergonomics Society
- See also Location Cursor
- An indicator that shows which user interface object
has focus. The appearance of this indicator usually depends on the kind
of object that has focus. The object with focus can be activated if it
is a control (e.g., button, menu) or selected if it is a selectable
object (e.g., icon, list item). Also called a location cursor. See also
input focus, text cursor, and focus indicator. Contrast with pointer, location cursor and text cursor.
- Example: A box or
highlighted area around a text field, button, list, or menu option.
- Font [SVG10] 02-02-2001
- A font represents an organized collection of glyphs
in which the various glyph representations will share a common look or
styling such that, when a string of characters is rendered together,
the result is highly legible, conveys a particular artistic style and
provides consistent inter-character alignment and spacing.
- Form Control
[XFORMS10] 07-15-2001
- A user interface control or "widget" that serves as
a point of user interaction.
- Form Fields [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
(PDF-Tech)01-08-2001 NEEDS TERM 01-23-2001
- @@
- Gateway 03-24-2001 RFC2828
- A relay mechanism that attaches to two (or more)
computer networks that have similar functions but dissimilar
implementations and that enables host computers on one network to
communicate with hosts on the other; an intermediate system that is the
interface between two computer networks. (E.G.: bridge, firewall,
guard, internetwork, proxy server, router, and subnetwork.)
- Generation Tool
[ATAG10] 01-25-2001
- A "generation tool" is a program or script that
produces automatic markup "on the fly" by following a template or set
of rules. The generation may be performed on either the server or
client side.
- Glyph [SVG10] 02-02-2001
- A glyph represents a unit of rendered content within
a font. Often, there is a one-to-one correspondence between characters
to be drawn and corresponding glyphs (e.g., often, the character "A" is
rendered using a single glyph), but other times multiple glyphs are
used to render a single character (e.g., use of accents) or a single
glyph can be used to render multiple characters (e.g., ligatures).
Typically, a glyph is defined by one or more shapes such as a path,
possibly with additional information such as rendering hints that help
a font engine to produce legible text in small sizes.
- Glyph [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
(PDF-Tech) 12-13-2001
- An image used in the visual re of characters; roughly speaking, how a
character looks. A font is a set of glyphs. In the simple case, for a
given font (typeface and size), each character corresponds to a single
glyph but this is not always the case, especially in a language with a
large alphabet where one character may correspond to several glyphs or
several characters to one glyph (a character encoding). A glyph can be
an alphabetic or numeric font or some other symbol that pictures an
encoded character. The following quote is from a document written as
background for the Unicode character set standard. An ideal
characterization of characters and glyphs and their relationship may be
stated as follows: A character conveys distinctions in meaning or
sounds. A character has no intrinsic appearance. A glyph conveys
distinctions in form. A glyph has no intrinsic meaning. One or more
characters may be depicted by one or more glyph res (instances of an
abstract glyph) in a possibly context dependent fashion. Glyph is from
a Greek word for "carving."
- Graceful Transformation, Graceful
Degradation 03-23-2001
- See: Transform
Gracefully
- Graphical [UAAG10]
NEEDS WORK 01-23-2001
- In this [UA] document, the term graphical refers to
information (text, graphics, colors, etc.) rendered for visual
consumption.
- GraphicsGENERIC a la Tim's
book-glossary
- Two- or three-dimensional images, typically drawings
or photographs. See also GIF, PNG, SVG, and VRML.
- Graphics Element
[SVG10] 02-02-2001
- One of the element types that can cause graphics to
be drawn onto the target canvas. Specifically: 'path', 'text', 'rect',
'circle', 'ellipse', 'line', 'polyline', 'polygon', 'image' and
'use'.
- Graphics Referencing
Element [SVG10] 02-02-2001
- A graphics element which uses a reference to a
different document or element as the source of its graphical content.
Specifically: 'use' and 'image'.
- Haptic [ATAG10] 02-27-2002 NEEDS
DEFINITION IMS
- @@
- Hearing
Disabilities[PWD-Use-Web1] 03-19-2001 "How People w/dis
Use the Web"
-
- Highlight
[UAAG10]
- A highlight mechanism emphasizes selected or focused
content.
Example:, graphical highlight
mechanisms include dotted boxes, underlining, and reverse video.
Synthesized speech highlight mechanisms include alterations of voice
pitch and volume.
- HTTP 03-24-2001 Web Characterization
Terminology & Definitions Sheet
- HTTPS 03-24-2001 RFC2828
- When used in the first part of a URL (the part that
precedes the colon and specifies an access scheme or protocol), this
term specifies the use of HTTP enhanced by a security mechanism, which
is usually SSL.
- HyperlinkGENERIC RFC1983
- A pointer within a hypertext document which points
(links) to another document, which may or may not also be a hypertext
document. See also: hypertext.
- HypertextGENERIC RFC1983
- A document, written in HTML, which contains
hyperlinks to other documents, which may or may not also be hypertext
documents. Hypertext documents are usually retrieved using WWW.
- Image [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]NEEDS WORK 01-23-2001
- A graphical .
- ImageGENERIC 03-15-2001 Dublin Core Def.
- An image is a primarily symbolic visual
representation other than text.
Example: Images and photographs of
physical objects, paintings, prints, drawings, other images and
graphics, animations and moving pictures, film, diagrams, maps, musical
notation.
Note: That image may include both
electronic and physical representations.
- Image Map [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]
- An image that has been divided into regions with
associated actions. Clicking on an active region causes an action to
occur.
- When a user clicks on an active region of a
client-side image map, the user agent calculates in which region
the click occurred and follows the link associated with that region. Clicking on an active
region of a server-side image map causes the coordinates of the
click to be sent to a server, which then performs some action.
- Content developers can make client-side image maps
accessible by providing device-independent access to the same links
associated with the image map's regions. Client-side image maps allow
the user agent to provide immediate
feedback as to whether or not the user's pointer is over an active
region.
- Impairment [WCAG20]
06-20-2002 World Health
Organization WHO
- An impairment refers to an abnormality of body
structure, appearance, organ and system functioning. Impairments are
problems in body function or structure such as a significant deviation
or loss.
- Impairments of
Intelligence[PWD-Use-Web1] 03-19-2001 "How People w/dis
Use the Web"
- Individuals with impairments of intelligence
(sometimes called "learning disabilities" in Europe) may learn more
slowly, or have difficulty understanding complex concepts.
- Important [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]
- Information in a document is important if
understanding that information is crucial to understanding the
document.
- Inaccessible
Markup[ATAG10]
- See Accessibility Problem
[ATAG10].
- Indexing Value[WCAG10]
[WCAG20] (PDF-Tech) 01-11-2001 NEEDS TERM 01-23-2001
- @@
- Inference Rules
RDF, Artificial-intelligence, Web Research
04-20-2001 Semantic Web
Article in Scientific American 04/2001
- An ontology may express the inference rule "If a
city code is associated with a state code, and an address uses that
city code, then that address has the associated state code." A program
could then readily deduce, for instance, that a Cornell University
address, being in Ithaca, must be in New York State, which is in the
U.S., and therefore should be formatted to U.S. standards.
- Inform [ATAG10]
- To "inform" is to make the author aware of an event
or situation through alert, prompt, sound, flash, or other
means.
- Information Appliances
[XHTML Basic]01-03-10-2001
- Information appliances are targeted for particular
uses. They support the features they need for the functions they are
designed to fulfill. The following are examples of different information appliances:
- Mobile phones
- Televisions
- PDAs
- Vending machines
- Pagers
- Car navigation systems
- Mobile game machines
- Digital book readers
- Smart watches
- Informative[UAAG10]
10-17-2001EMPTY
- See also Normative, Non-normative
- @@
- Inheritance [DOM2]
03-10-2001
- In object-oriented programming, the ability to
create new classes (or interfaces) that contain all the methods and
properties of another class (or interface), plus additional methods and
properties. If class (or interface) D inherits from class (or
interface) B, then D is said to be derived from B. B is said to be a
base class (or interface) for D. Some programming languages allow for
multiple inheritance, that is, inheritance from more than one class or
interface.
- Input Configuration
[UAAG10]
- An input configuration is the mapping of user agent
functionalities to some user
interface trigger mechanisms (e.g., menus, buttons, keyboard
keys, voice commands, etc.). The default input configuration is the
mapping the user finds after installation of the software; it must be
included in the user agent documentation. The documentation should
tell users what functionalities are available and the user interface
should remind users of the current mapping to the user interface and
allow them to figure out quickly how to use the appropriate software
features.
- Input Focus 11-13-2001 Human Factors and
Ergonomics Society
- See also Pointer Focus, Keyboard Focus
- The current assignment of the input from an input
device to a user interface object (a window or an object within a
window). Two kinds of input focus are pointer focus and keyboard
focus.
- Input Method [WCAG10]
[WCAG20] 01-23-2001 NEEDS TERM 01-23-2001
- @@
- Insertion Point, Current Insertion
Point [UAAG10] 02-03-2001
- The insertion point is the location where document
editing takes place. The insertion point may be set by the user (e.g.,
by a pointing device or the keyboard editing keys) or through an
application programming interface (API). A viewport has at most one
logical insertion point. When several viewports co-exist, each may have
an insertion point, but only one is active, called the current
insertion point.
- Note: Graphical user
agents that render bidirectional text may render the insertion point at
two locations on the screen. Often, the cursor is shown as split into
an upper half and a lower half. The insertion point is generally
rendered specially (on the screen, by a vertical bar or similar
cursor)
- Instance Data
[XFORMS10] 07-15-2001
- An internal tree representation of the values and
state of all the instance data items associated with a particular
form.
- Instance Data Type
[XFORMS10] 07-15-2001
- An internal representation of the value and state of
a single piece of data corresponding to a Schema simpleType,
constrained by the definition of a model item.
- Interactive
Resource GENERIC 03-17-2001 Dublin Core
Def.
- An interactive resource is a resource which requires
interaction from the user to be understood, executed, or experienced.
Examples: Forms on web pages, applets,
multimedia learning objects, chat services, virtual reality.
- InteroperabilityGENERIC RFC1983
- The ability of software and hardware on multiple
machines from multiple vendors to communicate meaningfully.
- Intrinsic Dimensions
[CSS1] [CSS2]NEW 01-02-03
- The width and height as defined by the element
itself, not imposed by the surroundings. In CSS2 it is assumed that all
replaced elements -- and only replaced elements -- come with intrinsic
dimensions.
- Keyboard 11-13-2001 Human Factors and
Ergonomics Society
- A hardware device (or logical equivalent) consisting
of a number of mechanical buttons (keys) that the user presses to input
characters to a computer. Note that a logical keyboard may provide a
representation of keys (e.g., on-screen keyboard) or it may not (e.g.,
voice recognition).
- Keyboard
Equivalents 11-13-2001 Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
- Keys or key combinations that provide access to
keyboard functions that are usually activated by a pointing device,
voice input, or other input or control mechanisms/devices.
- Keyboard Focus
11-13-2001 Human Factors
and Ergonomics Society
- The current assignment of the input from the
keyboard or equivalent to a user interface object (a window or an
object within a window). For a window, focus is indicated by a focus
indicator; for an individual object, focus is indicated by a focus
cursor.
- Latch 11-13-2001 Human Factors and
Ergonomics Society
- See also Lock for contrast definition
- A mode in which any modifier key (e.g., Shift,
Control, Command, Alt, Option) remains logically pressed (active) in
combination with only a single subsequent (nonmodifier) keypress.
Contrast with lock.
- Lexical Space
[XFORMS10]07-15-2001 taken from XML Schema part 2
- A lexical space is the set of valid literals for a
datatype.
- Note: The literals in the
lexical spaces defined in the X-Forms 1.0 specification have the
following characteristics:
- Interoperability:
The number of literals for each value has been kept small; for many
datatypes there is a one-to-one mapping between literals and
values. This makes it easy to exchange the values between different
systems. In many cases, conversion from locale-dependent
representations will be required on both the originator and the
recipient side, both for computer processing and for interaction
with humans.
- Basic readability:
Textual, rather than binary, literals are used. This makes hand
editing, debugging, and similar activities possible
- Ease of parsing and serializing:
Where possible, literals correspond to those found in common
programming languages and libraries.
- Example: "100" and
"1.0E2" are two different literals from the lexical space of float
which both denote the same value. The type system defined in this
specification provides a mechanism for schema designers to control the
set of values and the corresponding set of acceptable literals of those
values for a datatype.
- Linearized Table
[WCAG10] [WCAG20]
- A table rendering process where the contents of the
cells become a series of paragraphs (e.g., down the page) one after
another. The paragraphs will occur in the same order as the cells are
defined in the document source. Cells should make sense when read in
order and should include structural
elements (that create paragraphs, headers, lists, etc.) so the page
makes sense after linearization.
- Line-break Hyphen
[WCAG10] [WCAG20] (PDF-Tech)12-13-2000
- Hyphens that you add explicitly by entering the dash
character are called line-break or hard hyphens. A hyphen that is
always set; for example, the hyphen in
"cost-effective." A soft hyphen, by contrast, will only be set when a
word that is not normally hyphenated falls at the end of a line, and
must be broken for proper type spacing. Word processors use two basic
techniques to perform hyphenation. The first employs an internal
dictionary of words that indicates where hyphens may be inserted. The
second uses a set of logical formulas to make hyphenation decisions.
The dictionary method is more accurate but is usually slower. The most
sophisticated programs use a combination of both methods. Most word
processors allow you to override their own hyphenation rules and define
yourself where a word should be divided.
- Link Text [WCAG10]
[WCAG20] NEEDS TERM 01-23-2001
- @@
- Live [WCAG20] 06-20-2002
- See Real-time, Real-time process, Real-time event
- Local URI reference, Non-local URI
reference [SVG10] 02-02-2001
NEEDS WORK
- A Uniform Resource Identifier [URI] that does not
include an absoluteURI or relativeURI
and thus represents a reference to an element within the current
document. A non-local URI reference is a URI that
includes an absoluteURI or
relativeURI and thus (usually) represents a reference
to a different document or an element within a different document. See
References and the 'defs' element.
- Location Cursor
11-13-2001 Human Factors
and Ergonomics Society
- An indicator that shows which user interface object
has focus. The appearance of this indicator usually depends on the kind
of object that has focus. The object with focus can be activated if it
is a control (e.g., button, menu) or selected if it is a selectable
object (e.g., icon, list item). Also called a focus cursor. See also
input focus, text cursor, and focus indicator. Contrast with pointer, focus
cursor and text cursor.
- Lock 11-13-2001 Human Factors and
Ergonomics Society
- See also Latch for contrast
definition
- A persistent mode in which any modifier key (e.g.,
Shift, Control, Command, Alt, Option) remains logically pressed
(active) in combination with any number of subsequent keypresses until
lock mode is turned off. Contrast with latch.
- Machine-centric
02-03-2001 NEEDS
DEFINITION
- @@
- Machine Understandable
[CC/PP] 03-10-2001
- Data that is described with tags that associate a
meaning to the data (i.e., an "author" tag would describe the author of
the document), allowing data to be searched or combined and not just
displayed.
- MacRomanEncoding,
MacExpertEncoding, or WinAnsi Encoding [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
(PDF-Tech)NEW 01-01-08
- The regular font encodings used for Latin-text fonts
on mac OS and Windows systems are named MacRomanEncoding and
WinAnsiEncoding, respectively. Additionally, an encoding named
MacExpertEncoding is used with "expert" fonts that contain addiitonal
characters useful for sophisticated typography. Complete details of
these encodings and the characters present in typical fonts are found
in Appendix D of the PDF Version 1.3 Reference Manual.
- Map,
Mapped [WCAG10] [WCAG20]01-11-2001 NEEDS TERM
01-23-2001
- @@.
- Markup [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
01-11-2001 NEEDS TERM
01-01-23-2001
- @@
- Markup Language
[ATAG10]
- Authors encode information using a "markup language"
such as HTML HTML 4.01, SVG SVG, or MathML MATHML.
- Mask [SVG10]NEW 01-02-02
- Is a container element which can contain graphics
elements or other container elements which define a set of graphics
that is to be used as a semi-transparent mask for compositing
foreground objects into the current background.
- Memory
Impairments[PWD-Use-Web1] NEW
01-03-19 "How People w/dis Use the
Web"
- Individuals with memory impairments may have
problems with short-term memory, missing long-term memory, or some loss
of language.
- Mental Health
Disabilities[PWD-Use-Web1] NEW
01-03-19 "How People w/dis Use the
Web"
- Individuals with mental or emotional disabilities
may have difficulty focusing on information on a Web site, or
difficulty with blurred vision or hand tremors due to side effects from
medications.
- MetadataGENERIC a la Tim's
book-glossary
- Data about data on the Web, including but not
limited to authorship, classification, endorsement, policy,
distribution terms, IPR, and so on. A significant use for the Semantic
Web.
- Metadata 01-03-11-2001 Barron's Dict. of
Computer & Internet Terms
- Data that describes data. Data dictionaries and
repositories are examples of metadata. The
term may also refer to any file or database that holds information
about another database's structure, attributes, processing or
changes.
- Method NEW A
Beginning...01-01-25
- A function that is part of an object and that is
accessed through the object.
Example: Could be
“frog.hop(4,feet);”..
- Method [DOM1] NEW 01-03-10
- A method is an operation or function that is
associated with an object and is allowed to manipulate the object's
data.
- Mnemonic 11-13-2001 Human Factors and
Ergonomics Society
- See also Access
Key (s)
- The portion of an option name or control label used
for keyboard selection. Also called mnemonic, implicit designator, or
menu mnemonic. See implicit designator.
- Mnemonic Code
11-13-2001 Human Factors
and Ergonomics Society
- A code that conveys information that is meaningful
to the user and has some association with the words it represents.
Mnemonic codes frequently consist of alphanumeric characters, making
them easier to learn and recall. Many mnemonic codes are
abbreviations.
- Modal NEW 01-03-1 Barron's Dict. of
Computer & Internet Terms
- Mode Oriented. A modal operation switches from one
mode to another.
- Modalities 02-03-2001 NEEDS
DEFINITION
- @@
- Mode 03-11-2001 Barron's Dict. of
Computer & Internet Terms
- An operational state that a system has switched to.
It Implies at least two possible conditions. There are countless modes
for hardware and software.
- Model 03-11-2001 Barron's Dict. of
Computer & Internet Terms
- A style or type of hardware device.
- A mathmatical representation of a device or process used for
analysis and planning. See Data
Model.
- Model Item
[XFORMS10]07-15-2001
- An abstract unit of data-collection within the
XForms Model, which defines a XML Schema datatype and possibly other
form-specific constraints on a single piece of collected data
- Modifier Key 11-13-2001 Human Factors and
Ergonomics Society
- See also Access
Key (s)
- A keyboard key that changes the action or effect of
another key or of the pointing device.
- Example: The Shift key
extends the current selection in the direction of pointer movement,
rather than moving the position of the text cursor.
- Example: The control or
command key transforms the keyboard keys from text input into
commands.
- Multimedia Presentation
[WCAG10] [WCAG20]01-11-2001
- A multimedia presentation is a presentation that is not a visual-only, audio-only, or tactile-only. In a "classic" multimedia
(e.g., a movie that has sound track or an animation with accompanying
audio, including slide-shows), at least one visual
track is closely synchronized with at least one audio
track.
- Multimedia Presentation
[UAAG10]
- For the purposes of this [UA] document, a multimedia
presentation is a presentation that is
not a visual-only, audio-only, or tactile-only. In a "classic" multimedia
presentation (e.g., a movie that has sound track or an animation with
accompanying audio), at least one visual track is closely synchronized
with at least one audio
tracks.
- Multi-modal 02-03-2001 NEEDS
DEFINITION
- @@
- Namespace[CC/PP]
01-04-15-2001 CC/PP
- A qualifier added to an XML tag to ensure uniqueness
among XML elements.
- Native Support
[UAAG10]
- A user agent supports
a feature natively if it does not require another piece of software
(e.g., plug-in or external program) for support. Operating system
features adopted by the user agent to meet the requirements of this
[UA] document are considered part of native support. User agents may,
but are not required to, provide access to adopted operating system
features through the user agent's user interface or programmatic means.
Example:, if the user agent relies on
the operating system's audio control features to meet some requirements
of this [UA] document, the user agent is not required to include those
controls in its native user interface. If an adopted operating system
feature is not accessible through the operating system's user
interface, then the user agent must provide an alternative accessible
solution.
- Natural Language
[UAAG10]
- Natural language is spoken, written, or signed human
language such as French, Japanese, and American Sign Language. On the
Web, the natural language of content may be specified by markup or
HTTP headers. Some examples include the "lang"
attribute in HTML 4.01 ( HTML 4.01 section 8.1), the "xml:lang"
attribute in XML 1.0 ( XML, section 2.12), the HTML
4.01 "hreflang" attribute for links in HTML 4.01
( HTML 4.01, section 12.1.5), the
HTTP Content-Language header ( RFC2616, section 14.12) and the
Accept-Language request header ( RFC2616, section 14.4).
- Natural Language
[WCAG10] [WCAG20]
- Spoken, written, or signed human languages such as French, Japanese,
American Sign Language, and braille. The natural language of content
may be indicated with the "lang" attribute in HTML ( HTML 4.0,
section 8.1) and the "xml:lang" attribute in XML ( XML, section 2.12).
- Non-normative[UAAG10]
10-17-2001EMPTY
- See also Normative, Informative
- @@
- Non-text
Content[WCAG20] 12-10-2001
- See also Normative, Informative
- Non-text content includes images, text in raster
images, image map regions, animations (e.g., animated GIFs), applets
and programmatic objects, ascii art, scripts, images used as list
bullets, spacers, graphical buttons, sounds (played with or without
user interaction), stand-alone audio files, audio tracks of video, and
video.
- Normative[UAAG10]
10-17-2001EMPTY
- See also Non-normative, Informative
- @@
- Objects [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]NEW 00-12-13
- An object is an identifiable, encapsulated entity
that provides one or more services requested by a client. Objects can
refer to the objects in OOP (object-oriented programming) or the
objects in OLE (Object Linking and Embedding). In object-oriented
programming, objects are the things you think about first in designing
a program and they are also the units of code that are eventually
derived from the process. In between, each object is made into a
generic class of object and even more generic classes are defined so
that objects can share models and reuse the class definitions in their
code. Each object is an instance of a particular class or subclass with
the class's own method or procedures and data variable. An object is
what actually runs in the computer. An object can be a spell checker or
a piece of a graphics program used to draw squares or circles. Do you
remember the crazy story people used to try to tell about a word
processer where you could pick all of your favorite pieces (favorite
spell checker, grammar checker, text editor, font manager, etc.) and
piece them together to form the ultimate customizable word processer?
Well, those pieces are objects. In OLE, an object is a piece of a
document, a graphic, or some multimedia. In general multimedia terms,
an object is a stored data element, such as a video clip, an audio
file, or a graphic re of an object.
- Obsolete
Element GENERIC 03-17-2001 Dublin Core
Def.
- An obsolete element or attribute is one for which
there is no guarantee of support by a user agent. Obsolete elements are
no longer defined in the specification, but are listed for historical
purposes in the changes section of the reference manual.
- Ontology Philosophy 04-20-2001
Semantic Web Article in Scientific American
04/2001
- Is a theory about the nature of existence, of what
types of things exist; ontology as a discipline studies such
theories.
- Ontology RDF, Artificial-intelligence, Web Research 04-20-2001 Semantic Web Article
in Scientific American 04/2001
- An ontology in RDF and Artificial Intelligence
infers a document or file that formally defines the relations among
terms. Ontologies establish a joint terminology between members of a
community of interest. These members can be human or automated agents.
The most typical kind of ontology for the Web has a taxonomy and a set
of inference rules.
- Operators01-25-2001 A
Beginning...01-25-2001
- Symbols in a computer language that manipulates an
operand. An example is “2 * 3” where “*” is the operator for
multiplication and 2 and 3 are operands.
- Output Method [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]01-11-2001 NEEDS TERM 01-23-2001
- @@
- Page-content Stream
[WCAG10] [WCAG20] (PDF-Tech)01-08-2001
- A page's content stream contains operands and
operators used to place "paint" on a page in selected areas. By
executing the actions described in the page content stream, an
application builds up the image of the page described by the
stream.
- 01-08-2001 NEEDS TERM 01-23-2001
- @@
- Paint [SVG10]NEW 01-02-02
- A paint represents a way of putting color values
onto the canvas. A paint might consists of both color values and
associated alpha values which control the blending of colors against
already existing color values on the canvas. SVG supports three types
of built-in paint: color, gradients and patterns.
- Parser, Parsing XML,
XHTML02-04-2001
- A parser extracts information from an XML document
and parses it back to the application (for example, a browser) for
processing or display. Parsing is the act whereby a document is
scanned, and the information contained within the document is filtered
into the context of the elements in which the information is
structured
- Personal
Digital Assistant (PDA) [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
- A PDA is a small, portable
computing device. Most PDAs are used to track personal data such as
calendars, contacts, and electronic mail. A PDA is generally a handheld
device with a small screen that allows input from various sources.
- Personally Identifiable
Data [P3P] 02-27-2001
- Any information relating to an identified or
identifiable individual.
- Photosensitive Epilepsy,
Photoepilepsy [WCAG10] [WCAG20]07-26-2001
- Some people with epilepsy can be triggered into
seizures by flashing or flickering lights, rapidly changing images or
visual patterns. This is called photosensitive epilepsy. When given an
EEG test, the majority of people with photosensitive epilepsy will show
epileptic discharges in the brain when exposed to flashing lights.
- Epilepsy is best described as a tendency to
recurrent convulsions. Photosensitivity is sensitivity to flickering or
intermittent light stimulation but includes sensitivity to visual
patterns. Photosensitive epilepsy therefore can be defined as recurrent
convulsions precipitated by visual stimuli, particularly flickering
light (Harding & Jeavons, 1994).
- Photosensitive epilepsy is largely genetically
determined, although its inheritance is complex. It most commonly
affects children, and usually appears between the ages of 8 and 20
years. The incidence is highest around ages 12 and 13, suggesting a
link with early puberty, and girls are affected more often than boys.
One quarter of patients lose their photosensitivity around 25 years of
age. The rest remain photosensitive for life.
- Physical
Disabilities[PWD-Use-Web1] 03-19-2001 "How People w/dis
Use the Web"
- Motor Disabilities
- Speech Disabilities
- Placeholder [UAAG10]
Draft02-03-2001
- A placeholder is content generated by the user agent
to replace author-supplied content. A placeholder may be generated as
the result of a user preference (e.g., to not render images) or as repair
content (e.g., when an image cannot be found). Placeholders
can be any type of content, including text and images. This document
does not require user agents to include placeholders in the document object. A placeholder inserted
in the document object should conform to the Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines 1.0 WCAG10. If a placeholder is not
part of the document object, it is part of the user interface only (and
subject, for example, to checkpoint 1.3).
- Plaintext 03-24-2001 RFC2828
- Data that is input to and transformed by an
encryption process, or that is output by a decryption process.
- Point of Regard
[UAAG10]
- The point of regard of a viewport is its position in rendered content. What is meant
precisely by "the point of regard" may vary since users may be viewing
rendered content with browsers that render in various ways ( graphically, as speech, as Braille,
etc.). Depending on the and browsing
context, it may refer to a two dimensional area (e.g., for graphical
rendering) or a single point (e.g., for aural rendering or voice
browsing). The point of regard may also refer to a particular moment in
time for content that changes over time (e.g., an audio-only). User agents may use the focus, selection, or other means to designate
the point of regard. A should not
change the point of regard unexpectedly as this may disorient the
user.
- Pointer 11-13-2001 Human Factors and
Ergonomics Society
- A user interface object represented by a graphical
symbol that moves on the screen to reflect the user's manipulation of a
pointing device and/or the current state of the dialog or system. Users
interact with other objects on the screen by moving the pointer to an
object's location and manipulating that object. Examples of pointers
include mouse devices, tablets, fingers, and 3 D wands. Pointers may be
represented with an auditory representation of a location on the
screen. Although the pointer is sometimes called a type of cursor, this
document uses the word cursor only for the indication of keyboard input
focus or location. Also called On-Screen Pointer. See also focus cursor
and text cursor.
- Pointer Focus
11-13-2001 Human Factors
and Ergonomics Society
- See also Focus
- The current assignment of the input from the
pointing device to a window. The window with pointer focus usually has
some distinguishing characteristic, such as a highlighted border and/or
title bar.
- Policy [P3P10] 02-27-2001
- A collection of one or more privacy statements
together with information asserting the identity, URI, assurances, and
dispute resolution procedures of the service covered by the policy.
- Practice [P3P10] 02-27-2001
- The set of disclosures regarding data usage,
including purpose, recipients, and other disclosures.
- Preference [P3P10]
02-27-2001
- A rule, or set of rules, that determines what
action(s) a user agent will take. A preference might be expressed as a
formally defined computable statement .
- Presentation
[UAAG10]
- In this [UA] document, the term presentation refers
to a collection of information, consisting of one or more web resources, intended to be rendered
simultaneously, and identified by a single URI. In general, a has an
inherent time component (i.e., it's not just a static "Web page" (refer
to the definition of "Web page" in "Web Characterization Terminology
and Definitions Sheet" WEBCHAR).
- Presentation [WCAG10]
[WCAG20] 01-13-2001 NEEDS TERM 01-23-2001
- @@.
- Presentation
Attribute [SVG10]02-02-2001
- An XML attribute on an SVG element which specifies a
value for a given property for that element.
- Presentation Markup
[ATAG10]
- "Presentation markup" is markup
language that encodes information about the desired or
layout of the content. For example, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS 1, CSS 2) can be used
to control fonts, colors, aural rendering, and graphical positioning.
Presentation markup should not be used in place of structural markup to convey structure.
For example, authors should mark up lists in HTML with proper list
markup and style them with CSS (e.g., to control spacing, bullets,
numbering, etc.). Authors should not use other CSS or HTML incorrectly
to lay out content graphically so that it resembles a list.
- Presentation Markup
[WCAG10] [WCAG20]02-03-2001
- Presentation markup is markup that
achieves a stylistic (rather than structuring) effect such as the B or
I elements in HTML. Note: that the STRONG and
EM elements are not considered markup since they convey information
that is independent of a particular font style.
- Profile [UAAG10]
- A profile is a named and persistent representation of user
preferences that may be used to configure a . Preferences include input configurations,
style preferences, etc. On systems with distinct user accounts,
profiles enable users to reconfigure software quickly when they log on,
and they may be shared by several users. Platform-independent profiles
are useful for those who use the same user agent on different
platforms.
- Prompt [ATAG10]
- A "prompt" is a request for author input, either
information or a decision. A prompt requires author response. For
example, a text
equivalents entry field prominently displayed in an image
insertion dialog would constitute a prompt. Prompts can be used to
encourage authors to provide information needed to make content
accessible (such as alternative text equivalents).
- Prompt [UAAG10]
- In this document, "to prompt" means to require input
from the user. The user agent should allow users to configure how they
wish to be prompted. For instance, for a user agent functionality X,
configurations might include: always do X without prompting me, never
do X without prompting me, don't ever do X but tell me when you could
have done X but didn't, don't ever do X and don't tell me, etc.
- Property [ATAG10]
- A "property" is a piece of information about an
element, for example structural information (e.g., it is item number 7
in a list, or plain text) or information (e.g., that it is marked as
bold, its font size is 14). In XML and HTML, properties of an element
include the type of the element (e.g.,
IMG or
DL), the values of its attributes, and information associated
by means of a style sheet. In a database, properties of a particular
element may include values of the entry, and acceptable data types for
that entry.
- Property [SVG10]02-02-2001
- A parameter that helps specify how a document should
be rendered. A complete list of SVG's properties can be found in
Property Index. Properties are assigned to elements in the SVG language
either by presentation attributes on elements in the SVG language or by
using a styling language such as CSS, CSS 2.
- Properties, Values, and
Defaults [UAAG10]
- A user agent renders
a document by applying formatting algorithms and style information to
the document's elements. Formatting depends on a number of factors,
including where the document is rendered: on screen, on paper, through
speakers, on a Braille display, on a mobile device, etc. Style
information (e.g., fonts, colors, voice inflection, etc.) may come from
the elements themselves (e.g., certain font and phrase elements in
HTML), from style sheets, or from settings. For the purposes of these
guidelines, each formatting or style option is governed by a property
and each property may take one value from a set of legal values.
Generally in this document, the term "property"
has the meaning defined in CSS 2 ( CSS 2, section 3). A reference to
"styles" in this UA document means a set of style-related
properties.
- The value given to a property by a user agent when
it is installed is called the property's default value
UA.
- Protocol 03-24-2001 RFC2828
- A set of rules (i.e., formats and procedures) to
implement and control some type of association (e.g., communication)
between systems. (E.g., Internet Protocol) In particular, a series of
ordered steps involving computing and communication that are performed
by two or more system entities to achieve a joint objective.
- Protocols 03-11-2001 NEEDS
DEFINITION
- A formal description of message formats and the
rules two computers must follow to exchange those messages. Protocols
can describe low-level details of machine-to-machine interfaces (e.g.,
the order in which bits and bytes are sent across a wire) or high-level
exchanges between allocation programs (e.g., the way in which two
programs transfer a file across the Internet).
- Publishing Tool
[ATAG10]01-25-2001
- A "publishing tool" is software that allows content
to be uploaded in an integrated fashion. Sometimes these tools makes
changes such as local hyper-reference modifications. Although these
tools sometimes stand alone, they may also be integrated into site
management tools.
- Purpose [P3P10] 02-27-2001
- The reason(s) for data collection and use.
- Query-by-example
[WCAG10] [WCAG20]01-11-2001 NEEDS TERM 01-23-2001
- @@.
- Real-time, Real-time process, Real-time
event [WCAG20] 06-20-2002 The Daisy Consortium
- This term is often written as "realtime" or
"real-time". The expression indicates that a process is happening
"live", i.e. at the same time as something else. For example, with some
audio CoDecs, it is possible to "compress in real time", which in this
case can indicate that the digital audio data compression is performed
by the computer at the same time as the digitisation and data storing
is talking place. To be a true real time process, it must be possible
to do the work as fast as – or preferable faster – than the rate at
which input data is coming in. If the real time process can not keep up
with the tempo of "real life", it is no longer a real-time process.
- Recognize
[UAAG10]
- A user agent is said to recognize markup, content
types, or rendering effects when it can identify the information.
Recognition may occur through built-in mechanisms, Document Type
Definitions (DTDs)
style sheets, HTTP headers, and other means. User agents may not
understand everything the author has encoded in content, such as the
semantics of XML elements unknown to the user agent, whether the link
text and link title accurately describe the linked resource, whether a
sentence (that has not been specially marked up) is a text equivalent
for an image, or whether a script is calculating a factorial. Another
example of failure of recognition is that HTML 3.2 s
may not recognize the new elements or attributes of HTML 4.01 HTML 4.01. While a user agent
may recognize blinking content specified by elements or attributes, it
may not recognize blinking in an applet. The Techniques document UAAG10-TECHS lists some
markup known to affect accessibility that should be recognized by user
agents.
- Recognize [UAAG10]
Draft NEW 01-02-03
- Authors encode information in markup languages,
style sheet languages, scripting languages, protocols, etc. When the
information is encoded in a manner that allows the user agent to
process it with certainty, the user agent can "recognize" the
information. For instance, HTML allows authors to specify a heading
with the H1 element, so a user agent that implements HTML can recognize
that content as a heading. If the author creates headings using a
visual effect alone (e.g., by increasing the font size), then the
author has encoded the heading in a manner that does not allow the user
agent to recognize it as a heading.
Some requirements of this document depend on content roles, content
relationships, timing relationships, and other information that must be
supplied by the author. These requirements only apply when the author has encoded that
information in a manner that the user agent can recognize. See the
section on conformance for more
information about applicability.
In practice, user agents will rely heavily on information that the
author has encoded in a markup language or style sheet language.
Information encoded in a script may not be recognized by the user agent
as easily. For instance, a user agent is not expected to recognize
that, when executed, a script will calculate a factorial. The user
agent will be able to recognize some information in a script by virtue
of implementing the scripting language or a known program library
(e.g., the user agent is expected to recognize when a script will open
a viewport or retrieve a resource from the Web). The Techniques
document UAAG10-TECHS lists some
markup known to affect accessibility that user agents can recognize.
- Redirection [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]01-11-2001 NEEDS TERM 01-23-2001
- @@.
- Rendered [WCAG10]
[WCAG20] NEEDS TERM 01-23-2001
- @@.
- Rendering XML,
XHTMLNEW 01-02-04-2001
- Rendering is the act whereby the information in a
document is presented. This presentation is
done in the form most appropriate to the environment (e.g. aurally,
visually, in print).
- Rendered Content, Rendered
Text [UAAG10] Draft 02-03-2001
- Rendered content is the part of content capable of being perceived by a
user through a given viewport (whether visual, auditory, or tactile).
Some rendered content may lie "outside" of a viewport at some times
(e.g., when the user can only view a portion of a large document
through a small graphical viewport, when audio content has already been
played, etc.). By changing the viewport's position, the user can view
the remaining rendered content.
- Note: In the context of this document, "invisible
content" is content that influences graphical rendering of other
content but is not rendered itself. Similarly, "silent content" is content that influences
audio rendering of other content but is not rendered itself. Neither
invisible nor silent content is considered rendered content.
- Rendered Content
[UAAG10] 02-03-2001
- The rendered content is that part of content rendered in a given viewport
(whether graphical, auditory, or tactile). An element's rendered
content is that which a user agent renders for the element. This may be
what appears between the element's start and end tags, the value of an
attribute (c.f. the "alt", "title", and "longdesc" attributes in HTML),
or external data (e.g., the IMG element in HTML). Content may be
rendered to a graphical display, to an auditory display (to a speaker
as speech and non-speech sounds) or to a tactile display (Braille and
haptic displays).
- Rendered Content
[ATAG10] 01-01-25-2001
- The "rendered content" of an element is that which
the element actually causes to be rendered by the user agent. This may
differ from the element's structural content. For example, some
elements cause external data to be rendered , and in some cases,
browsers may render the value of an attribute (e.g., "alt", "title") in
place of the element's content.
- Rendered Content [CSS1]
[CSS2] 02-03-2001
- The content of an element after the rendering that
applies to it according to the relevant style sheets has been applied.
The rendered content of a replaced element comes from outside the
source document. Rendered content may also be alternate text for an
element (e.g., the value of the HTML "alt" attribute), and may include
items inserted implicitly or explicitly by the style sheet, such as
bullets, numbering, etc.
- Rendered View
[ATAG10] 01-25-2001
- A "rendered view" simulates for the author how a
user will interact with the content being edited once published.
- Repair Content, Repair Text
[UAAG10]01-25-2001
- In this document, the term "repair content" refers
to content generated by the user agent in order to correct an error
condition or as the result of a user preference. "Repair text" means
repair content consisting only of text. This document does not require
user agents to include repair content in the document object.
Some error conditions that may lead to the generation of repair
content include:
- Erroneous or incomplete content (e.g., ill-formed markup, invalid
markup, missing text equivalents, etc.);
- Missing resources for handling or rendering content (e.g., the
user agent lacks a font family to display some characters, the user
agent doesn't implement a particular scripting language, etc.)
Some user preferences may change content, such as when the user has
turned off support for images and a placeholder icon to appears in
place of each image that has not been loaded.
For more information about repair techniques for Web content and
software, refer to "Techniques For Accessibility Evaluation And Repair
Tools" AERT.
- Replaced Element [CSS1]
[CSS2]02-03-2001
- An element for which the CSS formatter knows only
the intrinsic dimensions. In HTML, IMG, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT, and
OBJECT elements can be examples of replaced elements. For example, the
content of the IMG element is often replaced by the image that the
"src" attribute designates. CSS does not define how the intrinsic
dimensions are found.
- Repository [P3P10]
02-27-2001
- A mechanism for storing user information under the
control of the user agent.
- Repudiation 03-24-2001 RFC2828
- Denial by a system entity that was involved in an
association (especially an association that transfers information) of
having participated in the relationship. Denial by one of the entities
involved in a communication of having participated in all or part of
the communication.
- Repurpose 02-27-2001 NEEDS TERM
- @@
- ReverseChars [WCAG10]
[WCAG20] (PDF-Tech)12-14-2001
- Font characteristics may suggest that right-to-left
text be typeset left-to-right. The ReverseChars marked content
indicates that the show strings within the marked content are
individually reversed in reading order.
- Rich Media NEW 08-25-2001 xtech
- Rich media refers to elements on a web page (or in a
separate player) which exhibit dynamic motion over time or in response
to user interaction.
- The taxonomy defines classes of objects and
relations among them.
Example:
- A streaming video newscast
- An animated GIF in a banner advertisement
- A map with audio descriptions of historic locations which are
activated by mouse rollover
- A stock ticker on a news web site
- A intranet-based training video played in the QuickTime
player
- An animated Flash presentation embedded in a web page
- An image slideshow playing on a Palm handheld
- Router NEW 01-03-24-2001 RFC2828
- A computer that is a gateway between two networks at
OSI layer 3 and that relays and directs data packets through that
internetwork. The most common form of router operates on IP packets. In
the context of the Internet protocol suite, a networked computer that
forwards Internet Protocol packets that are not addressed to the
computer itself.
- Rules 04-20-2001Needs other
Defs
- See: Inference Rules
- @@
- NEEDS TERM
01-23-2001
- @@.
- Scanning
Software[PWD-Use-Web1] 03-18-2001 "How People w/dis
Use the Web"
- Scanning software is adaptive software used by
individuals with some physical or cognitive disabilities that
highlights or announces selection choices (e.g., menu items, links,
phrases) one at a time. A user selects a desired item by hitting a
switch when the desired item is highlighted or announced.
- Schema, schema 04-24-2001
- See also: XML Schema
- Schema [CC/PP]03-10-2001
- An RDF schema denotes resources which constitute the
particular unchanging versions of an RDF vocabulary at any point in
time. It is used to provide semantic information (such as organization
and relationship) about the interpretation of the statements in an RDF
data model. It does not include the values associated with the
attributes.
- Screen Magnifier
[WCAG10] [WCAG20]
- A software program that magnifies a portion of the
screen, so that it can be more easily viewed. Screen magnifiers are
used primarily by individuals with low vision.
- Screen
Magnifier[PWD-Use-Web1] 03-18-2001 "How People w/dis
Use the Web"
- Screen magnification is software used primarily by
individuals with low vision that magnifies a portion of the screen for
easier viewing. At the same time screen magnifiers make presentations
larger, they also reduce the area of the document that may be viewed,
removing surrounding context . Some screen magnifiers offer two views
of the screen: one magnified and one default size for navigation.
- Screen Reader [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]
- A software program that reads the contents of the
screen aloud to a user. Screen readers are used primarily by
individuals who are blind. Screen readers can usually only read text
that is printed, not painted, to the screen.
- Screen
Reader[PWD-Use-Web1] 03-18-2001
"How People w/dis Use the Web"
- Software used by individuals who are blind or who
have dyslexia that interprets what is displayed on a screen and directs
it either to speech synthesis for audio output, or to refreshable
braille for tactile output. Some screen readers use the document tree
(i.e., the parsed document code) as their input. Older screen readers
make use of the rendered version of a document, so that document order
or structure may be lost (e.g., when tables are used for layout) and
their output may be confusing.
- Screen Reader
11-13-2001 Human Factors
and Ergonomics Society
- Assistive technology (software, and sometimes
additional hardware), in combination with information available via the
operating system, that allows users who are blind to navigate the user
interface, determine the state of controls, and read text via Braille
or hear it via text-to-speech conversion.
- Script [UAAG10] Draft
02-03-2001
- In this document, the term "script" almost always refers to a
scripting (programming) language used to create dynamic Web content.
However, in checkpoints referring to the written (natural) language of
content, the term "script" is used as in Unicode UNICODE to mean "A collection of
symbols used to represent textual information in one or more writing
systems."
- Scripting 03-17-2002 NCI National Cancer
Institute
- See also Client-side
Scripting, Server-side
Scripting
- @@
- Seizure
Disorders[PWD-Use-Web1] 03-19-2001 "How People w/dis
Use the Web"
- Some individuals with seizure disorders are
triggered by visual flickering or audio signals at a certain
frequency.
- Selection [ATAG10]
01-25-2001
- A "selection" is a set of elements identified for a
particular operation. The user selection identifies a set of elements
for certain types of user interaction (e.g., cut, copy, and paste
operations). The user selection may be established by the user (e.g.,
by a pointing device or the keyboard) or via an accessibility
Application Programmatic Interface (API). A view may have several
selections, but only one user selection.
- Selection, Current Selection
[UAAG10]
- The selection generally identifies a range of
content (e.g., text, images, etc.) in a document. The selection may be structured (based on
the document tree) or unstructured (e.g., text-based). Content may be
selected through user interaction, scripts, etc. The selection may be
used for a variety of purposes: for cut and paste operations, to
designate a specific element in a document, to identify what a screen
reader should read, etc.
- The selection may be set by the user (e.g., by a
pointing device or the keyboard) or through an application programming
interface (API). A viewport has at most one selection (though the
selection may be rendered graphically as discontinuous text
fragments). When several viewports coexist, each may have a selection,
but only one is active, called the current selection.
- On the screen, the selection may be highlighted using colors, fonts,
graphics, magnification, etc. The selection may also be rendered as
inflected speech, for example.
- Semantics [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]12-14-2001 (needs
work)
- The study of relationships between signs and symbols
and what they represent. In this sense, also called semasiology.
semantics n : the study of language meaning
- The meaning of a string in some language, as opposed
to syntax which describes how symbols may be combined independent of
their meaning.
- Sender-initiated
Transmission 04-22-2001 /Protocols/HTTP/1.1
- A message transmission which is invoked by the
sender of the message. Sometimes described as "push" messaging. E.g.
sending an email.
- Server 03-24-2001 /Protocols/HTTP/1.1
- An application program that accepts connections in
order to service requests by sending back responses. Any given program
may be capable of being both a client and a server; our use of these
terms refers only to the role being performed by the program for a
particular connection, rather than to the program's capabilities in
general. Likewise, any server may act as an origin server, proxy,
gateway, or tunnel, switching behavior based on the nature of each
request.
- Server-side
Scripting [WCAG20] [Script Techniques] 03-18-2002 NCI National Cancer
Institute
- See also Scripting
- Web programming that is carried out on the Web
server, as opposed to the client's computer. Pages programmed with
server-side scripting do not require any special capabilities on the
part of the user's computer or browser.
- Service [P3P10] 02-27-2001
- A program that issues policies and (possibly) data
requests. By this definition, a service may be a server (site), a local
application, a piece of locally active code, such as an ActiveX control
or Java applet, or even another user agent
- Service GENERIC 03-17-2001 Dublin Core Def.
- A service is a system that provides one or more
functions of value to the end-user. Examples include: a photocopying
service, a banking service, an authentication service, interlibrary
loans, a Z39.50 or Web server.
- Showstring [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
(PDF-Tech)12-14-2001
- (a la Loretta) The strings that are the arguments to
the PDF and Postscript text-showing operators that show text on a page.
The show string is interpreted as a sequence of character codes
identifying the glyphs to be painted.
- Signing Avatar
02-24-2002 IMS Guidelines
for Developing Accessible Learning Applications and iCan
- See also Avatar
- Computer-generated signer for on-screen signing
animation. A virtual sign language translator in 3D animation, that
displays a distinct personality and natural facial expressions that
help interpret words and phrases for hearing-disabled viewers on their
computer screens. A signing avatar can translate text and video into
sign language using both hand signs and facial expressions.
- Simpler-language
Alternative [WCAG20] NEW
01-04-20
- Is comparable information on the same subject which
is written at a more introductory or elementary level.
- Site Management Tool
[ATAG10]01-25-2001
- A "site management tool" provides an overview of an
entire Web site indicating hierarchical structure. It will facilitate
management through functions that may include automatic index creation,
automatic link updating, and broken link checking.
- Soft Hyphen [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
(PDF-Tech) 12-14-2001
- (a la Loretta) A character that is used to mark
conditional hyphenation points. Unicode and ISO_Latin-1 code-point
0xAD.
- Tab Order [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]NEW "How People w/dis Use the Web"
- An assistive technology strategy. For people who
cannot use a mouse, one strategy for rapidly scanning through links,
headers, list items, or other structural items on a Web page is to use
the tab key to go through the items in sequence. People who are using
screen readers -- whether because they are blind or dyslexic -- may tab
through items on a page, as well as people using voice recognition.
- Tabular Information [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]
- When tables are used to represent logical relationships among data --
text, numbers, images, etc., that information is called "tabular
information" and the tables are called "data tables". The relationships
expressed by a table may be rendered visually (usually on a
two-dimensional grid), aurally (often preceding cells with header
information), or in other formats.
- Tactile Object
[UAAG10]
- A tactile object is output from a tactile viewport Tactile objects include text
(rendered as Braille) and graphics (rendered as raised-line
drawings).
- Tactile-only
Presentation [UAAG10]
- A tactile-only presentation is a presentation consisting exclusively of
one or more tactile
tracks presented concurrently or in series.
- Tactile Track
[UAAG10]
- A tactile track is a tactile object that is intended as a
whole or partial presentation . This
does not necessarily correspond to a single physical or logical track
on the storage or delivery media.
- Tagged PDF [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
PDF7-25-2001 Adobe
- Is a version od PDF that provides structure and
orders information to allow PDF documents to be read by screen-readers
and to be reflowed to fit different display screen sizes. To accomplish
this, Tagged PDF marks, or tags, the various elements that make up a
page.
- Target [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
NEEDS TERM 01-23-2001
- @@.
- Taxonomy RDF, Artificial-intelligence, Web Research 04-20-2001 Semantic Web Article
in Scientific American 04/2001
- The taxonomy defines classes of objects and
relations among them.
Example: An address may be defined as a
type of location, and city codes may be defined to apply only to
locations, and so on. Classes, subclasses and relations among entities
are a very powerful tool for Web use. We can express a large number of
relations among entities by assigning properties to classes and
allowing subclasses to inherit such properties. If city codes must be
of type city and cities generally have Web sites, we can discuss the
Web site associated with a city code even if no database links a city
code directly to a Web site.
- Telecommunications
[Access Board] 12-29-2001 [Access Board]
- The transmission, between or among points specified
by the user, of information of the user's choosing, without change in
the form or content of the information as sent and received.
[36 C.F.R. 1194.4]
- Telecommunications
12-29-2001 [High-Tech]
- The transmission of information over a
communications line.Telecommunications can include use of a modem, fax,
telephone line, etc. to send voice, data, text, images, or video over
long distances.
- Text GENERIC NEW 01-03-17
Dublin Core Def.
- A text is a resource whose content is primarily
words for reading.
Example: Books, letters, dissertations,
poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note: that facsimiles or images of texts are still
of the genre text.
- Text [UAAG10] DraftNEW 01-02-03
- In this document, the term "text" used by itself
refers to a sequence of characters from a markup language's document character set. Refer to the
"Character Model for the World Wide Web" CHARMOD for more information
about text and characters.
- Text [UAAG10] DraftNEW 01-02-03
- In this document, the term "text" used by itself
refers to a sequence of characters from a markup language's document character set. Refer to the
"Character Model for the World Wide Web" CHARMOD for more information
about text and characters.
Note: This document makes use of other terms
that include the word "text" that have highly specialized meanings: collated text transcript, non-text content, text
content, non-text element, text
element, text
equivalent, and text transcript.
- Text [UAAG10]01-25-2001
Also: Text content, non-text content, text element, non-text
element, text equivalent, non-text equivalent
- In this document, the term "text element" means content that, when rendered, is
understandable in each of three modes to three reference
groups:
- visually-displayed text, for users who are deaf and adept in
reading visually-displayed text;
- synthesized speech, for users who are blind and adept in use of
synthesized speech;
- braille, for users who are deaf-blind and adept at reading
braille.
In these definitions, a text element is said to be "understandable"
when it fulfills its communication function to representatives of the
three reference groups. Furthermore, these definitions make assumptions
such as the availability of appropriate hardware and software, that
content represents a general mix of purposes (information, education,
entertainment, commerce), that the individuals in the groups are able
to understand the natural language of the content, that the individuals
in the groups are not required to have specialized skills (e.g.,
computer science degree), etc.
A text element may contain markup for style (e.g., font size or
color), structure (e.g., heading levels), and other semantics. However,
the essential function of the text element should be retained even if
style information happens to be lost in rendering. In this document,
the term "text content" refers to content that is composed of one or
more text elements. A "non-text element" is an element that
fails to be understandable when rendered in any of
three modes to their respective reference disability audiences. Thus,
text elements have essential accessibility advantages often associated
with text while non-text elements are those that lack one or more such
advantages.
In this document, the term "non-text content" refers to content that
is composed of one or more non-text elements. Per checkpoint 1.1 of
"Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0" WCAG 1.0, authors must provide a
text equivalent for every author-supplied non-text element. Similarly,
user agent developers must provide a text equivalent for every non-text
element offered by the user agent to the user checkpoint 1.5.
Note: that the terms "text element" and
"non-text element" are defined by the characteristics of their output
(e.g., rendering) rather than those of their input (e.g., information
sources) or their internals (e.g., format). For example, in principle,
a text element can be generated or encoded in any fashion as long as it
has the proper output characteristics. In general, text elements are
composed of text (i.e., a sequence of characters). Both text elements
and non-text elements should be understood as "pre-rendering" content
in contrast to the "post-rendering" content that they produce.
A "text equivalent" is a text element that, when rendered, serves
essentially the same function as some other content (i.e., an equivalency target) does for a person
without any disability. Similarly, a "non-text equivalent" is a
non-text element that, when rendered, serves essentially the same
function as the equivalency target does for a person without any
disability. Please refer also to the definition of equivalent.
- Text
Browsers[PWD-Use-Web1] 03-18-2001 "How People w/dis
Use the Web"
- An assistive technology device. Text browsers such
as Lynx are an alternative to graphical user interface browsers. They
can be used with screen readers for people who are blind. They are also
used by many people who have low bandwidth connections and do not want
to wait for images to download.
- Text Content Element
[SVG10]02-02-2001
- One of SVG's elements that can define a text string
that is to be rendered onto the canvas. SVG's text content elements are
the following: 'text', 'tspan', 'tref' and 'textPath'.
- Text Cursor 11-13-2001 Human Factors and
Ergonomics Society
- The visual indication of the current insertion point
for text entry-that is, the character position where text will be
inserted into a text entry field or other text-based area (e.g., the
document window in a word processor). Contrast with pointer and focus
cursor.
- Text Decoration [UAAG10]
Draft02-03-2001
- In this document, a "text decoration" is any stylistic effect that
the user agent may apply to visually rendered text that does not affect
the layout of the document (i.e., does not require reformatting when
applied or removed). Text decoration mechanisms include underline,
overline, and strike-through.
- Text Equivalent [WCAG10]
[WCAG20] 01-13-2001
- Text is "equivalent" to other content when both
fulfill essentially the same function or purpose upon presentation to the user. Equivalent
alternatives play an important role in accessible authoring practices
since certain types of content may not be accessible to all users
(e.g., video, images, audio, etc.). Authors are encouraged to provide
text equivalents for non-text content since text may be rendered as
synthesized speech for individuals who have visual or learning
disabilities, as braille for individuals who are blind, or as graphical
text for individuals who are deaf or do not have a disability. For more
information about equivalent alternatives, please refer to the Web
Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG 1.0 WCAG 1.0.
- Text-To-Speech
[SSML1]03-11-2001
- The process of automatic generation of speech output
from text or annotated text input.
- Text Transcript
[UAAG10] 01-13-2001
- A text transcript is a text equivalent of audio
information (e.g., an audio-only presentation or the audio
tracks of a movie or animation). It provides text for both
spoken words and non-spoken sounds such as sound effects. Text
transcripts make audio information accessible to people who have
hearing disabilities and to people who cannot play the audio. Text
transcripts are usually pre-written but may be generated on the fly
(e.g., by speech-to-text converters). Refer also to the definitions of
captions and collated text transcripts.
- Trailing Space
Character [WCAG10] [WCAG20] (PDF-Tech)NEW 01-01-08
- A white space character inserted into the text for a
page after the last word on a line. A trailing space character is not
needed to produce the correct page image, but is important for
determining word breaks in the text of the page.
- Transcript
[ATAG10]
- A "transcript" is a text representation of sounds in
an audio clip or an auditory track of a multimedia presentation. A
"collated text transcript" for a video combines (collates) caption text
with text descriptions of video information (descriptions of the
actions, body language, graphics, and scene changes of the visual
track). Collated text transcripts are essential for individuals who are
deaf-blind and rely on braille for access to movies and other
content.
- Transform Gracefully
[WCAG10] [WCAG20]01-23-2001 NEEDS TERM 01-23-2001a la Daniel
D's XML Accessibility doc
- Graceful transformation is a property of a system
that can still function relatively error free when the system is
damaged or when the input stimuli are incomplete. In such systems,
removing a symbol token only results in the loss of the information
stored in that token, with no abrupt performance decline of the overall
process.
For instance, suppose I need to check the online yellow line train
schedule and I don't have visual access to the Web. If the train Web
site uses a yellow wagon animated icon to point me at the schedule, and
do not provide a label somewhere saying that this is for the yellow
line, thus only relying on my capacity to see the color, I suddenly
cannot understand this site: it does not transform gracefully.
- Transform Gracefully,
Graceful Degradation07-18-2001
Viewable in Any Browser.org
- Since HTML is continually changing and different
browsers support different elements, graceful degradation is the key to
making sure that pages are readable and accessible in all browsers.
When a browser encounters tags it doesn't understand or can't display,
degradation takes place. Whether this degradation will cause some of
your page content to be lost to the browser, or whether the content of
your page can still be accessed fully is dependent on whether the
degradation is graceful.
The HTML standards were written with graceful degradation in mind - new
attributes to older tags are safely ignored so that the rest of the tag
can still function normally, and new tags are written with alternative
display for browsers that don't support them in mind. There are many
elements of HTML that can't be displayed or can be turned off in
browsers that were written with the knowledge of these elements- such
as images, java, and frames. Using the appropriate methods to provide
an alternative message to those who can't see those elements or have
turned them off is one way to design for graceful degradation.
If you design pages with graceful degradation in mind, by utilizing the
built in elements of the HTML standards, and the advice provided here,
you can design pages that should degrade gracefully in all browsers and
are accessible.
- Transform
Gracefully From Face2Face in
Boston
- Transformation
[ATAG10]
- A "transformation" is a process that changes a
document or object into another, equivalent, object according to a
discrete set of rules. This includes conversion tools, software that allows
the author to change the DTD defined for the original
document to another DTD,
and the ability to change the markup of lists and convert them into
tables.
- Transformation
Filter [WCAG10] [WCAG20]01-13-2001
- Tools that assist Web users (rather than authors) to
either modify a page or supplement an assistive technology or browser.
Some of these tools integrate into the browser although most of them
work by proxy: using a piece of software that sits between the user and
the target server to transform a page to make it more accessible
- Transformation Matrix
[SVG10]02-02-2001
- Transformation matrices define the mathematical
mapping from one coordinate system into another using a 3x3 matrix
using the equation [x' y' 1] = [x y 1] * matrix. See current
transformation matrix (CTM) and Coordinate system transformations
- Type 0 Font, Type 1 Font
[WCAG10] [WCAG20] (PDF-Tech)NEW
01-08-2001
- Type 0 font: a composite font, that is, a font
composed of other fonts, organized hierarchically.
Type 1 font: a font represented using the Adobe Type 1 Font Format. A
Type 1 font program is a stylized PostScript program that describes
glyph shapes.
- Typographic Style
[WCAG10] [WCAG20] (PDF-Tech) NEEDS TERM
01-23-2001
- @@.
- Unicode [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
(PDF-Tech)NEW 00-12-14
- A character coding scheme that uses 16 bits for each
character, designed to extend the capabilities of ASCII, which uses
seven bits. Nearly all letters and symbols in all languages can be
represented in a standard way with Unicode. The first 128 characters of
Unicode are identical to those in standard ASCII. Unicode is an
entirely new idea in setting up binary codes for text or script
characters. Officially called the Unicode Worldwide Character Standard,
it is a system for "the interchange, processing, and display of the
written texts of the diverse languages of the modern world." It also
supports many classical and historical texts in a number of languages.
Currently, the Unicode standard contains 57709 distinct coded
characters derived from 24 supported language scripts. These characters
cover the principal written languages of the world. Originally Unicode
was designed to be universal, unique, and uniform, i.e., the code was
to cover all major modern written languages (universal), each character
was to have exactly one encoding (unique), and each character was to be
represented by a fixed width in bits (uniform). Parallel to the
development of Unicode an ISO/IEC standard was being worked on that put
a large emphasis on being compatible with existing character codes such
as ASCII or ISO Latin 1. To avoid having two competing 16-bit
standards, in 1992 the two teams compromised to define a common
character code standard, known both as Unicode and BMP. Since the
merger the character codes are the same but the two standards are not
identical. The ISO/IEC standard covers only coding while Unicode
includes additional specifications that help implementation. Unicode is
not a glyph encoding. The same character can be displayed as a variety
of glyphs, depending not only on the font and style, but also on the
adjacent characters. A sequence of characters can be displayed as a
single glyph or a character can be displayed as a sequence of glyphs.
Which will be the case, is often font dependent.
- Unicode Value [WCAG10]
[WCAG20] (PDF-Tech)NEW 00-12-14
- (a la Loretta)Unicode value or code point: The
Unicode Consortium defined a set of sixteen-bit code points, 57709 of
which are currently assigned and named Unicode Characters. The lowest
65536 code-points in ISO 10646-1 1993 are idential to the Unicode
Standard and are sometimes called the Basic Multilingual Plane. See http://www.unicode.org
- User [CC/PP] 04-22-2001
- An individual or group of individuals acting as a
single entity. The user is further qualified as an entity who uses a
device to request content and/or resource from a server.
- User [P3P10] 02-27-2001
- An individual (or group of individuals acting as a
single entity) on whose behalf a service is accessed and for which
personal data exists.
- User Agent
[ATAG10]
- A "user agent" is software that retrieves and
renders Web content. User agents include browsers, plug-ins for a
particular media type, and some assistive technologies.
- User Agent [WCAG10]
[WCAG20]
- Software to access Web content, including desktop
graphical browsers, text browsers, voice browsers, mobile phones,
multimedia players, plug-ins, and some software assistive technologies
used in conjunction with browsers such as screen readers, screen
magnifiers, and voice recognition software.
- User Agent
[UAAG10]
- A user agent is software that retrieves and renders
Web content, including text, graphics, sounds, video, images, and other
content types. A user agent may require additional user agents that
handle some types of content. For instance, a browser may run a
separate program or plug-in to render sound or video. User agents
include graphical desktop browsers, multimedia players, text browsers,
voice browsers, and assistive technologies such as screen
readers, screen magnifiers, speech synthesizers, onscreen keyboards,
and voice input software.
- User Agent [UAAG10]
Draft 02-03-2001
- In this document, the term "user agent" is used in
two ways:
- Any software that retrieves and renders Web content for users.
This may include Web browsers, media players, plug-ins, and other
programs -- including assistive technologies -- that help
in retrieving and rendering Web content.
- The subject of a conformance claim to this document.
This is the most common use of the term in this document and is the
usage in the checkpoints.
- User Agent [P3P10]
02-27-2001
- A program whose purpose is to mediate interactions
with services on behalf of the user under the user's preferences. A
user may have more than one user agent, and agents need not reside on
the user's desktop, but any agent must be controlled by and act on
behalf of only the user. The trust relationship between a user and his
or her agent may be governed by constraints outside of P3P. For
instance, an agent may be trusted as a part of the user's operating
system or Web client, or as a part of the terms and conditions of an
ISP or privacy proxy.
- User Agent Default Styles
[UAAG10]
- User agent default styles are style property values applied in the
absence of any author or user styles. Some markup languages specify a
default rendering for documents in that markup language. Other
specifications may not specify default styles.
Example: XML 1.0 XML does not specify
default styles for XML documents. HTML 4 HTML 4.01 does not specify
default styles for HTML documents, but the CSS 2 CSS 2 specification suggests a sample
default style sheet for HTML 4 based on current practice.
- User Agent
Profile[CC/PP] 04-15-2001 CC/PP
- Capabilities and preference Information pertaining
to the capabilities of the device, the operating and network
environment, and users personal preferences for receiving content
and/or resource.
- User-centric02-03-2001 NEEDS
DEFINITION
- @@.
- User Coordinate System, User
Space [SVG10] 02-02-2001
- In general, a coordinate system defines locations
and distances on the current canvas. The current user coordinate system
is the coordinate system that is currently active and which is used to
define how coordinates and lengths are located and computed,
respectively, on the current canvas. See coordinate system
transformations.
- User-Configurable
Schedule [ATAG10]01-25-2001
- A "user-configurable schedule" allows the user to
determine the type of prompts and alerts that are used, including when
they are presented.
Example, a user may wish to include
multiple images without being prompted for alternative information, and
then provide the alternative information in a batch process, or may
wish to be reminded each time they add an image. If the prompting is
done on a user-configurable schedule they will be able to make that
decision themselves. This technique allows a tool to suit the needs a
wide range of authors.
- User-initiated and User
Agent-initiated [UAAG10]02-03-2001
- User-initiated actions result from user input to the
user agent. User Agent-initiated actions result from scripts, operating
system conditions, or built-in user agent behavior.
- User-initiated and User
Agent-initiated [UAAG10]
- An action initiated by the user is one that results
from user operation of the user interface. An action initiated by the
user agent is one that results from the
execution of a script (e.g., an event handler
bound to an event not triggered through the user interface), from
operating system conditions, or from built-in behavior.
- User interface
[UAAG10]
- For the purposes of this UA document, user interface
includes both:
- The user interface UA, i.e., the controls and
mechanisms offered by the user agent for user interaction, such as
menus, buttons, keyboard access, etc.
- The content user interface, i.e., the active elements that are part of
content, such as form controls, links, applets, etc. that are
implemented natively.
- The document distinguishes them only where required for clarity.
- User Name (/TU key) [WCAG10]
[WCAG20] (PDF-Tech)NEW 01-01-08
- Any interactive form field may contain the optional
/TU entry in its dictionary. This entry, known as the user name or
short description, is used to identify this field when generating an
error message or naming the field to a screen reader.
- User Styles
[UAAG10]
- User styles are style property values that come from
user interface settings, user style sheets, or other user
interactions.
- User Units,User Space
[SVG10]02-02-2001
- A coordinate value or length expressed in user units
represents a coordinate value or length in the current user coordinate
system. Thus, 10 user units represents a length of 10 units in the
current user coordinate system.
- Variant[CC/PP] 04-15-2001 CC/PP
- One of several possible representations of a data
resource.
- Variant
Content[CC/PP] 04-15-2001 CC/PP
- When the form/format of the content being sent
depends on receiver's capabilities and/or preferences
- View [ATAG10]
- Authoring tools may render the same content in a
variety of ways; each rendering is called a "view." Some authoring
tools will have several different types of view, and some allow views
of several documents at once. For instance, one view may show raw
markup, a second may show a structured tree, a third may show markup
with rendered objects while a final view shows an example of how the document may appear if it
were to be rendered by a particular browser. A typical way to
distinguish views in a graphic environment is to place each in a
separate window.
- Views, Viewports, and Current
Viewport [UAAG10]
- User agents may handle different types of content: markup language, sound, video,
etc. The user views rendered content through a viewport, which
may be a window, a frame, a piece of paper, a speaker, a virtual
magnifying glass, etc. A viewport may contain another viewport (e.g.,
nested frames). Viewports do not include user interface controls such
as prompts, menus, alerts, etc.
- The viewport that contains both the current
focus and the current selection is called the current
viewport. The current viewport is generally highlighted when several viewports
coexist. A user agent should provide
mechanisms for accessing all content that can be presented by each
viewport (e.g., scrolling mechanisms, advance and rewind, etc.).
- User agents may render the same content in a variety
of ways; each rendering is called a view. For instance, a
user agent may allow users to view an entire document or just a list of
the document's headers. These are two different views of the
document.
- Viewport [SVG10]02-02-2001
- Is a rectangular region within the current canvas
onto which graphics elements are to be rendered. See the discussion of
the SVG viewport in the chapter on Coordinate Systems, Transformations
and Units
- Viewport Coordinate
System, Viewport Space [SVG10]02-02-2001
- In general, a coordinate system defines locations
and distances on the current canvas. The viewport coordinate system is
the coordinate system that is active at the start of processing of an
'svg' element, before processing the optional viewBox attribute. In the
case of an SVG document fragment that is embedded within a parent
document which uses CSS to manage its layout, then the viewport
coordinate system will have the same orientation and lengths as in CSS,
with the origin at the top-left on the viewport. See The initial
viewport and Establishing a new viewport.
- Viewport Units
[SVG10]02-02-2001
- A coordinate value or length expressed in viewport
units represents a coordinate value or length in the viewport
coordinate system. Thus, 10 viewport units represents a length of 10
units in the viewport coordinate system.
- Visual
Disabilities[PWD-Use-Web1] 03-19-2001 "How People w/dis
Use the Web"
- Blindness
- Low Vision
- Color Blindness
- Visual Object
[UAAG10]
- A visual object is output from a visual viewport. Visual objects include
graphics, text, and visual portions of movies and animations.
- Visual-only
Presentation [UAAG10]
- A visual-only presentation is a presentation consisting exclusively of
one or more visual
tracks presented concurrently or in series.
- Visual Track
[UAAG10]
- A visual track is a visual object that is intended as a
whole or partial presentation. A
visual track does not necessarily correspond to a single physical or
software object. A visual track can be text-based or graphic, static or
animated.
- Vocabulary[CC/PP]
04-15-2001 CC/PP
- A collection of attributes that adequately describe
the CC/PP. A vocabulary is associated with a schema.
- Voice Browser [UAAG10]
Draft 02-03-2001
- From "Introduction and Overview of W3C Speech Interface Framework" VOICEBROWSER: "A voice
browser is a device (hardware and software) that interprets voice
markup languages to generate voice output, interpret voice input, and
possibly accept and produce other modalities of input and output."
- Voice Browser [SSML11]
Draft 03-11-2001
- A device which interprets a (voice) markup language and is capable of
generating voice output and/or interpreting voice input, and possibly
other input/output modalities.
- Voice
Browser[PWD-Use-Web1] 03-18-2001 "How People w/dis
Use the Web"
- An assistive technology device. Voice browsers are
systems which allow voice-driven navigation, some with both voice-input
and voice-output, and some allowing telephone-based Web access.
- Web Browsers (for Non-Visual
Output) 10-12-2001 RNIB Devices for blind and the partially sighted.
Glossary
- Blind and partially sighted people will use one of
three possible methods to read pages on the World Wide Web. Users with
some sight can use screen magnification software. For users with little
or no useful sight the options are speech synthesisers or sound card to
convert text into speech or a refreshable braille display to convert
text into braille.
- eReader - CAST
- @@
- Web Resource
[UAAG10]
- The term "Web resource" is used in this UA document
in accordance with Web Characterization Terminology and Definitions
Sheet WEBCHAR to mean anything that has
identity on the Web. A Web resource is identified by a URI.
- Web Services [Web Services
Working Group?] 02-27-2002 NEEDS DEFINITION
- @@
- Whiteboard [ATAG10]
02-27-2002 IMS
NEEDS DEFINITION
- @@
- Wizard [ATAG10] 02-27-2002 NEEDS DEFINITION
- @@
- Word Breaks [WCAG10] [WCAG20]
(PDF-Tech)01-08-2001
- Applications divide the text of a page into words;
word breaks are the points in the text stream that separate adjoining
words. Different applications may use different rules for defining
words.
Example: One application may consider
everything between white space characters to be a word. Another
application may not include leading or trailing punctuation as part of
a word.
- XML Schema 04-24-2001 a la Al Gilman. This
is NOT the def, just his ideas.......
- "XML Schema" -- for recurring use in a
document which refers to it a lot; I will even use just 'Schema'
with a capital S where there are only two choices, the general
meaning and the specific meaning indicated [more surely] by b) and
c) following.
- W3C XML Schema language -- for
occasional reference in a document that doesn't refer
often.
- A language defined by the W3C for
writing schemas which are both in and about XML, see
<a
href="http://www.w3.org/XML/Schema">http://www.w3.org/XML/Schema</a>.