Glossary
A
- Accessibility
- Everyone, regardless of ability, has equal access to content.
- Accommodations
- Accommodations are adaptations made for specific individuals when a course content or tool is not accessible. Common accommodations are extra time on exams, captioning videos, and creating alternate formats for textbooks and readings. Proactively developing and procuring accessible course content, software, third-party websites, videos, and documents reduces the need for accommodations.
- ADA
- "The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prohibits discrimination and ensures equal opportunity for persons with disabilities in employment, State and local government services, public accommodations, commercial facilities, and transportation. It also mandates the establishment of TDD/telephone relay services. The ADA was revised by the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-325), which became effective on January 1, 2009. The ADA is codified at 42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq." (Americans with Disabilities Act, 2017).
- Alt Text
-
"The required alt attribute specifies an alternate text for an image, if the image cannot be displayed. . . . [or] if a user for some reason cannot view it (because of slow connection, an error in the src attribute, or if the user uses a screen reader)" (W3Schools, n.d.). Alt text can also be added in Word and PDF documents, usually in an image description field.
- Assistive Technology
- According to the National Center on Accessible Information Technology in Education, assistive technology (AT) is "technology used by individuals with disabilities in order to perform functions that might otherwise be difficult or impossible" (DO-IT, 2015). Many states sponsor programs to lend assistive technologies to individuals with disabilities; the RESNA Catalyst Project provides a list of all of the states and their available lending programs for AT. A few examples include wheelchairs, computer keyboards with large keys, screen enlargement software, and screen reader programs. The most common AT software programs used by Penn State students are JAWS (Job Access with Speech), Kurzweil, and ZoomText. See Screen Reader for information about JAWS and Kurzweil. ZoomText is a magnification software with test-to-speech functionality used by people with vision impairments.
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- "A disorder that includes difficulty staying focused and paying attention, difficulty controlling behavior and hyperactivity. Although ADHD is not considered a learning disability, research indicates that from 30-50 percent of children with ADHD also have a specific learning disability, and that the two conditions can interact to make learning extremely challenging" (Learning Disabilities Association of America, n.d.-a).
- Audio Description
- The audio-narrated description of the key visual elements in a video (Federal Communications Commission, 2022). Required by the new DOJ ruling that expanded Title II of the ADA to clarify that digital content should be WCAG 2.1 level AA.
- Auto-Generated Captions
- Captions that are created by a machine. Also referred to as auto speech recognition (ASR) and machine-generated captions. These are not usually not accurate enough to meet the needs of someone who is hard of hearing or deaf, especially when there is low-quality audio, the speaker has an accent, or the subject is very technical.
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
- "Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is the name for a group of developmental disorders. ASD includes a wide range, 'a spectrum,' of symptoms, skills, and levels of disability. People with ASD often have these characteristics:
- Ongoing social problems that include difficulty communicating and interacting with others
- Repetitive behaviors as well as limited interests or activities
- Symptoms that typically are recognized in the first two years of life
- Symptoms that hurt the individual’s ability to function socially, at school or work, or other areas of life" (National Institute of Mental Health, 2016).
C
- CART Captioning
- Communication access realtime translation is real-time speech-to-text provided by a CART captioner (stenographer) using a stenograph machine, computer, or special software (The JCR.com, 2015). Also called live captioning or live transcription (not to be confused with the live transcription feature in Zoom which provides realtime auto-generated captions).
- Considerations
- Considerations are a subset of accommodations that involve conversations and negotiations between the instructor and the student. These are provided to students when they have fluctuating conditions, such as depression, health issues that require surgery, or some other condition requiring long-term treatment. Examples include extensions on assignment deadlines, modified assignments, or being able to take a quiz at a different time. While considerations are the purview of the instructor alone, you may be asked to help an instructor implement a consideration, such as modifying an assignment due date or exam availability.
- Closed Captions
- Captions that are intended for the hard-of-hearing or deaf, can be turned on or off, and include sound effects, speaker IDs and other non-spoken elements (3Play Media, 2022).
D
- deaf
- "Although the term 'deaf' is often mistakenly used to refer to all individuals with hearing difficulties, the word deaf usually refers to an individual with very little or no functional hearing and who often uses sign language to communicate" (DeafTEC, n.d.). Deaf with a capital D is used only when referring to the Deaf Community.
- Deaf
- "Deaf (with a capital 'D') refers to embracing the cultural norms, beliefs, and values of the Deaf Community. The term 'Deaf' should be capitalized when it is used as a shortened reference to being a member of the Deaf Community. Example: He is Deaf. (Meaning that he is a member of the Deaf Community.) Example: He is deaf. (Meaning that he is lacking in the sense of hearing.)"(ASL University, n.d.)
E
- Enhanced Transcript
- A video transcript that includes descriptions of visual content.
H
- Hard of hearing
- "Hard of hearing refers to an individual who has a mild-to-moderate hearing loss who may communicate through sign language, spoken language, or both" (DeafTEC, n.d.).
I
- Image of text
- An image of text refers to web content that is not actual text but an image file such as a .png or .jpg, a scanned document, or text presented as part of video content. This type of text is readable for those with sight, but is not available to screen reader users.
L
- Learning Disabilities and Disorders
- "Learning disabilities are neurologically-based processing problems. These processing problems can interfere with learning basic skills such as reading, writing and/or math. They can also interfere with higher level skills such as organization, time planning, abstract reasoning, long or short term memory and attention" (Learning Disabilities Association of America, n.d.-b).
- Letter of Accommodation
- The accommodation process requires that an individual who wishes to receive consideration for academic adjustments related to a disability must self-identify, participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation of the disability and its impacts. If it is determined that a student is covered under the ADA, the student is given a letter of accommodation and directed to share and discuss it with the course instructor as early in the semester as possible. The letter generally identifies the student by name and by PSU ID number, provides the name and contact information for the disability contact liaison who is working with the student, identifies the accommodations that are appropriate, includes several signature blanks, and includes a statement of both student and instructor rights and responsibilities. Several of the more typical accommodations include extended time for exams, consideration for extensions on deadlines to complete course assignments, and textbooks in an alternative format. Requests for captioned materials are becoming increasingly common. Less frequent, but with possibly higher impact and complexity to implement, are accommodations related to visual impairments and blindness. (Graham, n.d.)
- Live Captions
- Captions that are provided during an event by a person who is often a professional captioner or stenographer.
- Live Captioning
- The act of providing captions during a live event.
- Live Captioner
- The person who is typing the captions during an event, often a professional who is hired for that purpose.
- Live Transcription
- Machine generated captions provided during an event. A feature found in most video conferencing software.
- Low Vision
- "Most surveys and studies indicate that the majority of people in the United States with vision loss are adults who are not totally blind; instead, they have what is referred to as low vision. . . . Low vision is a condition caused by eye disease, in which visual acuity is 20/70 or poorer in the better-seeing eye and cannot be corrected or improved with regular eyeglasses. (Scheiman, Scheiman, and Whittaker)" (Duffy, n.d.).
M
- Machine-generated captions
- Captions that are created by a machine. These are not usually not accurate enough to meet the needs of someone who is hard of hearing or deaf.
- Mathematical Markup Language (MathML)
- Mathematical Markup Language or MathML is intended to facilitate the use and re-use of mathematical and scientific content on the Web, and for other applications such as computer algebra systems, print typesetting, and voice synthesis. MathML can be used to encode both the presentation of mathematical notation for high-quality visual display, and mathematical content, for applications where the semantics plays more of a key role such as scientific software or voice synthesis. (W3C, 2017)
O
- Open Captions
- Time synchronized text of the audio content in a video that is part of the video itself so it can't be turned off.
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
- The process of converting a scanned image of text into a format with machine readable text. Several tools use OCR to convert scanned documents, including Kurzweil.
P
- Persona
- A profile of a fictional person, created using real-world statistics and observations that can be used to represent a larger population of people.
- Pre-Recorded Captions
- Captions added to a recording of an event after the fact. Also know as post-production captions.
R
- Real-Time Captions
- Captions that are provided during the event by a person as opposed to pre-recorded captions, which are added to the recording of an event after the fact.
- Remediation
- In the context of accessibility, remediation refers to making inaccessible content accessible, including documents and web pages.
S
- Screen Magnification
- Software that interfaces with a computer's graphical output to present enlarged screen content, often with text-to-speech functionality, and is used by people with low vision.
- Screen Reader
- A software program that allows people who are blind or have low vision to read the text that is displayed on the computer screen with a speech synthesizer or braille display. Screen readers are designed to recognize key HTML elements, such as headings, links, lists, tables, image alt text, math code, and most punctuation, which is why formatting those elements correctly is so important—those elements are what enable screen reader users to make sense of a page. The most popular screen reader is called Job Access With Speech (JAWS).
- Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
- This act required electronic and information technology to be accessible for persons with disabilities so that their level of access and usability would compare to that of persons without disabilities. The guidelines of Section 508 have been updated to align with the WCAG 2.0 AA guidelines.
- Subtitles
- The translation of the spoken content in a video into a different language.
T
- Text-to-Speech
- A learning tool that supports the concept of Universal Design for Learning with a suite of powerful reading, writing, test-taking, and study skill tools that makes curriculum accessible to all students. It is particularly appropriate for students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, those who require reading intervention, and students struggling with reading comprehension, but it includes magnification so it can be used by people with low vision. Kurzweil 3000 is an example.
- Transcript
- The text version of the time-based video caption file with the timestamps removed and speaker names added.
- Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
- "Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and disability in the United States, contributing to about 30% of all injury deaths. Every day, 138 people in the United States die from injuries that include TBI. Those who survive a TBI can face effects lasting a few days to disabilities which may last the rest of their lives. Effects of TBI can include impaired thinking or memory, movement, sensation (e.g., vision or hearing), or emotional functioning (e.g., personality changes, depression). These issues not only affect individuals but can have lasting effects on families and communities" (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016).
U
- Universal Design
- Universal Design (UD) is defined as "the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design" (Connell, et al., 1997). UD was developed by Ronald L. Mace, founder of the national Center for Universal Design, with ideas borrowed from architecture and draws on seven principles: equitable use, flexibility in use, simple and intuitive use, perceptible information, tolerance for error, low physical effort, and size and space for approach and use (Connell, et al., 1997).
- Usability
- How easy it is for an individual to learn and use a particular object or system.
W
- W3C
- "World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community that develops open standards to ensure long-term growth of the Web" (World Wide Web Consortium [W3C], n.d.).
- WCAG Guidelines
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2) are "developed through the W3C process in cooperation with individuals and organizations around the world, with a goal of proving a single shared standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally" (W3C, 2008).
- Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)