Glossary

Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.

212 results found in Web Accessibility.

POUR Principles (POUR, Four Principles of Accessibility)
The four foundational principles of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG): Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. Perceivable means information must be presentable in ways users …
Page Fragmentation (Visual Fragmentation, Content Fragmentation)
A web accessibility problem where different types of content on a web page (news articles, advertisements, navigation menus, related links) are visually grouped using colours, spacing, images, and lay…
Page Landmarks (ARIA Landmarks, Landmark Regions, Landmark Roles)
Named regions of a web page that identify its high-level structure — for example banner, navigation, main, complementary, search, form, contentinfo — so that assistive technology can expose them as ju…
Page Magnification (Page Zoom, Web Page Magnification)
An accessibility feature that enlarges the entire visual presentation of a web page, including text, images, and layout elements, to make content easier to see for people with low vision or visual fat…
Page Structure Preservation (Layout Preservation, Structure Retention)
The principle of maintaining the original spatial layout and DOM structure of a webpage when applying accessibility enhancements, content filtering, or other modifications. Preserving page structure e…
Perceived Accessibility (Subjective Accessibility, Accessibility-in-Use)
Perceived accessibility refers to the subjective quality by which users experience the accessibility of a website or application, as opposed to its objective compliance with accessibility standards. R…
Plain Language (Plain English, Clear Language, Simple Language)
Plain language is communication that is clear, concise, and well-organized so that the intended audience can easily find, understand, and use the information. In accessibility, plain language is essen…
Plain language (Plain English, Easy read, Simple language)
A communication approach that uses clear, concise, and well-organised writing designed to be understood the first time it is read. Plain language avoids jargon, complex sentence structures, and ambigu…
Presentation Independence (Presentation-Independent Information)
The principle that information should be stored and served in formats that can be rendered in visual, auditory, or electronic text form without loss of meaning. Presentation-independent content has no…
Procedural Accessibility
An aspect of web accessibility that addresses the consistency and clarity of interaction sequences and workflows within digital systems. Procedural accessibility ensures that similar services follow t…
Random Walk (Random Walk Sampling)
In web-accessibility evaluation, a random walk is a probabilistic sampling method that starts from a seed page (typically the home page) and follows outgoing links according to a probability rule — fo…
Readability (Text Readability)
The ease with which a reader can read and understand written text. Readability encompasses both visual readability (typography, layout, color contrast, spacing) and linguistic readability (vocabulary …
Reading accessibility (Readable content, Text accessibility)
The design of written content and reading interfaces to be usable by people with diverse literacy levels, cognitive abilities, language backgrounds, and sensory capabilities. Reading accessibility enc…
Relevance Scoring (Task Relevance Score, Content Relevance Rating)
The assignment of numerical scores to web page elements indicating how relevant they are to a user's specified task or goal. In systems like Task Mode, relevance scores typically range from 0 (complet…
Relevance Threshold (Filtering Threshold, Display Threshold)
A user-adjustable cutoff value that determines which content elements are displayed or hidden based on their relevance scores. Elements scoring above the threshold are shown; those below are de-emphas…
Retrofit Accessibility (Accessibility Retrofitting, Bolt-On Accessibility)
The practice of adding accessibility features to a product, system, or interface after it has already been designed and built for non-disabled users. Retrofit accessibility often results in suboptimal…
Rich Text (Formatted Text, Styled Text)
Text content that includes visual formatting attributes beyond plain characters, such as font size, font family, color, bold, italic, underline, and other styling properties. On the web, rich text is …
Role Attribute (ARIA Role, WAI Role)
An HTML attribute that defines the purpose or type of a user interface element, communicating its function to assistive technologies. Originally proposed as part of the XHTML namespace-based approach …
SERPA (Streamlined Evaluation and Reporting Process for Accessibility)
A programmer-centric methodology for conducting and reporting website accessibility evaluations, proposed by Law, Jacko, and Edwards in 2005. SERPA restructures the traditional accessibility evaluatio…
Scanning Navigation (Non-Visual Scanning, Auditory Scanning)
A non-visual navigation strategy in which a screen-reader or voice-browser user steps rapidly through a page one fragment at a time — line by line, item by item, or in fixed jumps (e.g. page-down keys…