Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
87 results found in standards.
- SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language)
- An international standard (ISO 8879:1986) metalanguage for defining markup languages that describe the structure and content of electronic documents. SGML introduced foundational concepts including de…
- Section 508 (508 Compliance, Rehabilitation Act Section 508)
- A provision of the United States Rehabilitation Act that requires federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Updated in 2017 (the "Sec…
- Semantic Tagging (Structural Tagging, PDF Semantic Markup)
- The process of marking up content within a PDF document with tags that convey the semantic meaning and structural role of each element — such as headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, figures, and links…
- Sensory Characteristics (WCAG 1.3.3, Success Criterion 1.3.3)
- WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.3.3 (Level A), which requires that instructions for understanding and operating content not rely solely on sensory characteristics such as shape, colour, size, visual loca…
- Success Criteria (Success Criterion, SC)
- The testable statements within the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) that define specific requirements for making web content accessible. Each success criterion is assigned a conformance lev…
- Tag Tree (PDF Tag Structure, Structure Tree, Tagged PDF Structure)
- The hierarchical structure of semantic tags embedded within a PDF document that defines the logical organization and reading order of its content. A tag tree is analogous to the DOM (Document Object M…
- Testability (Reliably Human Testable, Machine Testable)
- In the context of accessibility standards, testability refers to the degree to which a guideline or success criterion can be evaluated with consistent, reproducible results — either through automated …
- UAAG (User Agent Accessibility Guidelines)
- A set of guidelines from the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative that explains how to make user agents — browsers, media players, and other applications that render web content — accessible to people wit…
- Unified English Braille (UEB)
- The standard braille code used for English-language literary materials in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and other English-speaking countries. UEB was adopted to replace multipl…
- Unified Web Evaluation Methodology (UWEM)
- A standardized methodology developed by the European Web Accessibility Benchmarking Cluster (WAB Cluster) for evaluating the accessibility of websites in a consistent, comparable way. UWEM provides fo…
- User Agent (Browser, Web Browser)
- In web accessibility, a user agent is any software that retrieves, renders, and facilitates user interaction with web content. This includes mainstream web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, a…
- User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG)
- W3C guidelines that explain how to make user agents—web browsers, media players, and other applications that render web content—accessible to people with disabilities. UAAG covers how user agents shou…
- VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template, Accessibility Conformance Report, ACR)
- A standardized document in which vendors report how well their product or service conforms to accessibility standards such as WCAG, Section 508, and EN 301 549. Originally created by the Information T…
- Verbatim Captioning (Verbatim Captions)
- A captioning approach that reproduces every spoken word exactly as uttered, including filler words, false starts, and repetitions. Regulators in many countries (e.g., the Canadian CRTC, the US FCC) em…
- Voice over LTE (VoLTE, LTE Voice, HD Voice)
- A standard for transmitting voice calls over 4G LTE mobile networks using IP-based protocols rather than legacy circuit-switched networks. VoLTE typically uses the AMR-WB codec, enabling wideband HD v…
- W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
- The main international standards organisation for the World Wide Web, founded by Tim Berners-Lee in 1994. The W3C develops and maintains specifications including HTML, CSS, SVG, and ARIA. Its Web Acce…
- WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, WCAG 1.0, WCAG 2.0, WCAG 2.1, WCAG 2.2)
- A set of guidelines published by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) that define how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities. WCAG is organized around four principles: P…
- WCAG 2.4 Navigable (Guideline 2.4, Navigable Guideline)
- A guideline within the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) under the Operable principle that requires web content to provide ways to help users navigate, find content, and determine where they…
- WCAG Conformance (WCAG Compliance, Web Accessibility Conformance)
- The degree to which a website or web application meets the requirements defined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). WCAG defines three conformance levels: Level A (minimum, addressing …
- WCAG-EM (Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology)
- A structured methodology published by the W3C for evaluating how well a website conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). WCAG-EM defines a five-step process: defining the evaluatio…