Glossary

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

29 results found in testing.

ACT Rules (Accessibility Conformance Testing Rules, ACT-R)
A set of standardized, machine-readable test rules developed by the W3C that provide specific, objective criteria for evaluating whether web content meets accessibility requirements like WCAG success …
AChecker (IDI Web Accessibility Checker)
An open-source web accessibility evaluation tool that checks HTML content against accessibility standards including WCAG 2.0. AChecker identifies three types of issues: known problems (definite violat…
Ablation Study (Ablation Experiment)
A methodology, common in machine-learning and systems research, in which individual components of a system are systematically removed or disabled to measure their contribution to overall performance. …
Accessibility Audit (Accessibility Review, A11y Audit)
A structured evaluation of a digital product, website, or application against established accessibility standards, typically WCAG, to identify barriers that prevent people with disabilities from using…
Accessibility Evaluation Framework (A11y Assessment Framework, Accessibility Testing Framework)
A structured methodology for systematically assessing the accessibility of digital content, products, or services against established standards and guidelines. Effective frameworks define the criteria…
Accessibility Testing (A11y Testing)
The practice of evaluating software, websites, or digital products to ensure they can be used by people with disabilities, including those using assistive technologies such as screen readers, voice re…
Accessibility Violation (A11y Violation, Accessibility Error, Accessibility Issue)
Any instance where web content, code, or design fails to conform to established accessibility guidelines such as WCAG. Accessibility violations can be syntactic (missing required HTML elements or attr…
Automated Accessibility Testing (Automated A11y Testing, Accessibility Scanning)
The use of software tools to programmatically check web content against accessibility guidelines such as WCAG. Tools like Axe, WAVE, Google Lighthouse, and AChecker translate accessibility rules into …
Axe (axe-core, Deque Axe)
An open-source accessibility testing engine developed by Deque Systems that checks web content against WCAG and other accessibility standards. Axe can be integrated into browsers (via browser extensio…
Cognitive Walkthrough (Expert Walkthrough)
An accessibility and usability evaluation method in which one or more experts step through a series of tasks from the perspective of a target user, identifying potential barriers and difficulties at e…
Dynamic Accessibility Analysis (Runtime Accessibility Testing, Dynamic A11y Analysis)
An approach to detecting accessibility issues by testing an application while it is running on a device or emulator, examining the actual rendered user interface rather than just the source code. Tool…
False Negative (Type II Error)
An error in which a system fails to identify something that is actually present or true. In privacy and obfuscation contexts, a false negative occurs when an AI system fails to detect private content …
False Positive (Type I Error)
An error in which a system incorrectly identifies something as present or true when it is not. In privacy and obfuscation contexts, a false positive occurs when an AI system incorrectly flags non-priv…
HoneyPage (Honey Page)
A purpose-built test web page used by researchers to study the behaviour of browser extensions, crawlers, or malware in a controlled environment. HoneyPages are instrumented to record network requests…
Large-Scale Web Accessibility Evaluation (Large-Scale Accessibility Assessment, Web Accessibility Survey)
The systematic automated or semi-automated assessment of web accessibility across hundreds or thousands of websites to understand broad trends, compliance rates, and the overall state of accessibility…
Matterhorn Protocol (PDF Association Matterhorn Protocol)
A comprehensive set of test conditions published by the PDF Association for verifying PDF/UA (ISO 14289-1) conformance. The Matterhorn Protocol categorizes accessibility checks into those that can be …
Multi-Modal LLM (Multimodal Large Language Model, MLLM, Vision-Language Model)
A large language model that can process and reason over more than one type of input modality, typically text combined with images, audio, or video. In accessibility research, multi-modal LLMs such as …
Page Sampling (Page Selection Strategy, Website Sampling)
The methodology used to select which pages within a website will be evaluated during an accessibility assessment. Common strategies include evaluating only the home page, testing specific page types (…
Quality assurance (QA)
In accessibility, the process of checking that the methods and practices used to create a product follow established guidelines and best practices. Quality assurance is largely qualitative — it asks w…
Quality control (QC)
In accessibility, the process of testing a product or its components against a defined specification to verify conformance. Quality control is quantitative — it measures specific outcomes, such as whe…