Content created by Assistant Secretary for Administration (ASA)
These are common acronyms and phrases used in the digital accessibility realm at HHS and across the digital accessibility field. The list is not comprehensive.
Acronyms
| Acronym | Expansion |
|---|---|
| 508 | Section 508: The law that provides standards for how federal agencies incorporate digital accessibility. |
| A11y | Accessibility: There are 11 characters between the A and Y. |
| ACR | Accessibility Conformance Report |
| AD | Audio Description |
| ADA | Americans with Disabilities Act |
| Alt Text | Alternate Text |
| ANDI | Accessible Name & Description Inspector |
| ARIA | Accessible Rich Internet Applications |
| AT | Assistive Technology |
| CAPTCHA | Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart |
| CC | Closed Captions |
| CCA | Colour Contrast Analyser |
| Dev | Developer or Development |
| DOM | Document Object Model |
| EEO | Equal Employment Opportunity |
| EIT | Electronic Information Technology (predecessor to ICT) |
| FAR | Federal Acquisition Regulation |
| GSA | General Services Administration |
| GUI | Graphical User Interface (Interchangeable with UI) |
| HHS | United States Department of Health and Human Services |
| HHSAR | HHS Acquisition Regulations |
| ICT | Information and Communications Technology |
| IT | Information Technology |
| ITAR | Information Technology Acquisition Review |
| OpDiv | Operating Division |
| OS | Office of the Secretary |
| Adobe Portable Document Format | |
| POUR | Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust |
| PPT | Microsoft PowerPoint |
| SME | Subject Matter Expert |
| StaffDiv | Staff Division |
| UI | User Interface (Interchangeable with GUI) |
| USC | United States Code |
| UX | User Experience |
| VPAT | Voluntary Product Accessibility Template |
| W3C | World Wide Web Consortium |
| WCAG | Web Content Accessibility Guidelines |
| Word | Microsoft Word |
Glossary
| Phrase | Definition |
|---|---|
| Accessible (also Accessibility) | How successfully people with a disability can locate, get to, and understand information they want or need. |
| Accessible Name & Description Inspector (ANDI) | Free web accessibility testing tool (created by Social Security Administration [SSA]). |
| Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) | A set of attributes that define ways to make web content and web applications more accessible to people with disabilities. |
| Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) | Describes how the item(s) will fully address the accessibility requirements outlined in the solicitation; and provides a description of the evaluation methods the offeror will use to validate for conformance to the Section 508 standards. |
| Alternate (Alt) Text (See also Text Alternative) | A textual description on a meaningful image that provides an interpretation of the visual content. (Also see Text Alternative.) |
| Alternative Input Device | Hardware or software solutions that allow users with a variety of impairments to access a computer in a different way. Examples include switches, pointing devices, and on-screen keyboards. |
| Alternative Means | Providing individuals with disabilities access to the information or data involved by an alternative media, format, or technology that allows the individual to use the information or data. |
| Assistive Technology (AT) | Hardware and/or software that acts as a user agent, or along with a mainstream user agent, to provide functionality to meet the requirements of users with disabilities that go beyond those offered by mainstream user agents. |
| Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA) | A type of security measure known as challenge-response authentication. Many CAPTCHA challenges are graphical in nature and require a alternative means for users with disabilities to complete the challenge. |
| Color Contrast | Color contrast is the difference in light between font (or anything in the foreground) and its background. How well the colors are differentiated determines how well most people can read the information. |
| Compliance (also Compliant) | The act or process of conforming, submitting, or adapting (as to a regulation or to another's wishes) as required or requested. The agency must comply with the Section 508 law. |
| Conformance (also Conformant) | To act in accordance with, whereas ICT must be in accordance with Section 508 standards. |
| Content | Information and sensory experience to be communicated to the user by means of a user agent, that defines the content's structure, presentation, and interactions. |
| Dictation | The action of saying words aloud to be typed, written down, or recorded. Also known as speech to text. |
| Document Object Model (DOM) | A programming API for HTML and XML documents. It defines the logical structure of documents and the way a document is accessed and manipulated. |
| Equivalent Facilitation | Substantially equivalent or greater access to and use of a product for people with disabilities. |
| Exceptions | The law provides for a limited number of reasons for content to not comply with Section 508. However, exceptions are rarely granted because anything that can be made accessible must be compliant. Additionally, most exceptions only allow a specific feature or function to not comply. The rest of the system or product must comply. |
| Focus (Tab) Order | The sequence in which users access interactive components in content. The focus order can often be seen by using the TAB key on the keyboard and locating a dotted rectangle or other colored highlight around a component. |
| Header | A row at the top of a table used to label each column. The first column of a table can serve as the label for each row. Table headers help users of assistive technology navigate and identify relationships between data. |
| Heading | A word, phrase, or sentence at the beginning of a written passage that explains the passage’s purpose. |
| Images – Complex | Multiple, connected pieces form the image – often conveys relationships, hierarchy, trends, etc. Examples: Chart, some screenshots, diagram, etc. |
| Images – Decorative | Graphic used as eye candy, to fill space, or for visual appearance. |
| Images - Meaningful | Graphic that conveys a purpose. Authors must decide if the image is meaningful within context. |
| Images - Simple | As one piece provides a visual representation of an object or person within context. Examples: Logo, photo ID, graphical instructions, etc. |
| Information and Communications Technology (ICT) | “ICT” is an extension of “IT” that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications and computers, as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage, and audiovisual systems. ICT is a broad subject that covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit, or receive information electronically in a digital form. |
| Information Technology (IT) | “IT” is defined as any services, equipment, or interconnected system(s) or subsystem(s) of equipment, that are used in the automatic acquisition, storage, analysis, evaluation, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, or reception of data or information by the agency. |
| Logical Order (see also Reading Order) | Top to bottom, left to right, or the visually implied reading order. |
| Magnification | Make something appear larger than it is, Magnification can be a form of assistive technology. |
| Name, Role, State | Name: Text by which a component within content can be identified to the user. Role: Text or number by which the function of a component within content can be identified. State: A state is a dynamic property expressing characteristics of an object that may change in response to user action or automated processes. |
| Non-Text Content | Any content that is not a sequence of characters that can be programmatically determined or where the sequence is not expressing something in human language. |
| Operable | Users must be able to operate the interface (the interface cannot require interaction that a user cannot perform) |
| Owner | System and content owners are individuals or an HHS entity who serve as the primary point of contact and are responsible for the information and/or data provided within the ICT. |
| PDF Tags | Tags identify the type of content and store attributes about it. Once a PDF is tagged, assistive technology can interpret the information. |
| Perceivable | Users must be able to perceive the information being presented (it can't be invisible to all their senses) |
| Reading Order (see also Logical Order) | The sequential, logical presentation of content by assistive technology. The order must follow the same visual presentation or as closely as possible that provides logical context. |
| Representative Testing | A small sample to be tested from the overall amount of content that effectively represents all the content due to its similarity in presentation(s) and function(s). |
| Robust | Users must be able to access the content as technologies advance (as technologies and user agents evolve, the content should remain accessible) |
| Sana Serif Font | Lacking the strokes stemming from letters that characterize them as serif fonts. Sans serif typefaces are often used to signify something clean, minimal, friendly, or modern. |
| Serif Font | Any of the short lines stemming from and at an angle to the upper and lower ends of the strokes of a letter. |
| Screen Reader | A form of assistive technology that renders text and image content as speech or braille output. Essential for users with visual and some learning impairments. |
| Speech to Text | Technology that enables human speech to be converted automatically into text. Also known as dictation. |
| Styles | A set of predetermined formatting characteristics that can be applied to text items. Formatting is a part of the structure of the content, not simply visual features. |
| Synchronized Media (also Media, Multimedia, Time-Based Media) | Audio or video synchronized with another format for presenting information and/or with time-based interactive components |
| Tables – Complex | Each data cell relates to two or more row and/or column headers. Often cells are merged. |
| Tables - Layout | Used to provide some sort of visual structure to a page, such as columns. For accessibility reasons, table structure must not be used for layout purposes. |
| Tables - Simple | Each data cell relates to only one row and/or column header. |
| Text Alternative (See also Alternate Text) | Text that is programmatically associated with non-text content or referred to from text that is programmatically associated with non-text content. Programmatically associated text is text whose location can be programmatically determined from the non-text content. |
| Understandable | Users must be able to understand the information as well as the operation of the user interface (the content or operation cannot be beyond their understanding) |
| Unicode | A universal character encoding standard that assigns a code to every character and symbol in every language in the world. Often it is not possible for assistive technology to properly interpret non-Unicode characters. Unicode values have appropriate names for comprehension. |
| Universal Design | Concept of designing all products and the built environment to be aesthetic and usable to the greatest extent possible by everyone, regardless of their age, ability, or status in life. |
| Usable (also Usability) | The degree to which something is able or fit to be used. |
| User Agent | Any software that retrieves and presents content for users. |
| User Interface Component | A part of the content that is perceived by users as a single control for a distinct function. |
| User Experience (UX) | Encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with a company, services, and products. See also usable. |
| Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT™) | The Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) is a document which evaluates how accessible a particular product is according to the Section 508 standards. It is a self-disclosing document produced by the vendor which details each aspect of the Section 508 requirements and how the product supports each criterion. A completed VPAT is known as an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR). |