Glossary of accessibility related expressions
This glossary contains explanations for words that are often used in the context of accessibility architectures.
A
a11y
Abbreviation for
Accessibility.
Accessibility
A computer, an application or a web site is fully accessible if it can be used by all kind of different devices, including braille devices, screen readers, head point devices, special keyboards, buttons or mice, etc. The term accessibility is also more generally used to describe projects aiming at making computers fully accessible, or at offering computer software as a tool for dealing with physical handicaps.
Accessibility Aid
An accessibility aid is a feature, an application or a device that assists
the user with dealing with a handicap. The term accessibility aid can be
used as a synonym for
Assistive Technology.
Accessibility Broker
Please look at
AT-SPI.
Assistive Technology
An assistive technology is a technology that assists the user with dealing with a handicap. In the context of a computer this often is an application, but it might also be a braille display, etc.
ATAG
Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines, released by the
WAI
as guidelines for the implementation of accessible web authoring tools.
Related internet site: Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines
ATK
Accessibility Toolkit. This is an interface for accessibility-relevant information. It is used in order to devide the toolkit dependent part of the accessibility implementation within the Gnome Accessibility Architecture from the IPC-dependent part.
AT-SPI
Assistive Technology Service Provider Interface. This is a Corba based
protocol for communication between accessible applications and
assistive technologies.
It was designed by the
GAP,
and it is likely to become the
standard accessibility protocol on Unix systems. AT-SPI is designed to
know about three different program types: AT-SPI aware applications,
accessibility clients, and an accessibility broker. The AT-SPI aware
applications register with the broker in order to offer their information.
Clients may add event listeners to the broker, so that they get informed
when accessibility related information in any application changes. Because
of the relation to the AT-SPI protocol the accessibility broker is often
called AT-SPI registry.
D
Dasher
Dasher is a spatial oriented text input system that uses only a pointing-device (like a mouse or an eye tracker, for example) as an input method. In order to do so, the characters are displayed within boxes (one box for each character). By navigating into one box you select the corresponding character. Within that box other boxes are added for the second character and so forth.
Related internet site: Dasher home page
F
FDAWG
Free Desktop Accessibility Working Group. A mailing list for the discussion of the accessibility of free desktops.
Related internet sites: FDAWG home page
G
GAIL
Gnome Accessibility Implementation Library. This library implements a
bridge between the Gnome widgets and
ATK.
Gnopernicus
Gnopernicus is both an assistive technology for low-visioned and blind
persons. It incorporates supports screen readers, braille displays and
magnification as its output devices. It uses the
AT-SPI
protocol for enquiring the information on the screen.
Related internet sites: Gnopernicus home page
GOK
Gnome Onscreen Keyboard. It is an application that displays a dynamically
changing keyboard on the screen and allows multiple input methods for
selection. GOK uses the
AT-SPI
protocol for updating the keys within the keyboard.
Related internet sites: GOK home page
J
JSAPI
Java Speech Application Programming Interface. The JSAPI is a cross-platform programming interface to support command and control recognizers, dictation systems and speech synthesizers.
Related internet site: JSAPI home page
K
kdeaccessibility
kdeaccessibility is a package of
assistive technologies
for KDE. It is developed by the
KDEAP.
The kdeaccessibility package currently contains
KMagnifier,
KMouseTool, and
KMouth.
Related internet site: Accessibility Aids for KDE
kmag
Binary name of
KMagnifier.
KMagnifier
KMagnifier is a screen magnifier. It magnifies the area of the screen around the
mouse pointer or optionally a user defined area. Additionally it offers to save
a magnified screenshot to disk. It is part of the
kdeaccessibility
package, but also has its own homepage. KMagnifier is often called kmag.
Related internet site: KMagnifier home page
KMouseTool
KMouseTool is a program that clicks whenever the user stops moving the
mouse. This is needed by persons whom it hurts clicking with one of the
mouse keys. KMouseTool is part of the
kdeaccessibility
package, but also has its own hompage.
Related internet site: KMouseTool home page
KMouth
KMouth is a program for people who cannot speak. It has a text input field
and speaks the sentences that you enter. It also has support for user defined
phrasebooks. KMouth is part of the
kdeaccessibility
package, but also has its own hompage.
Related internet site: KMouth home page
kttsd
KDE Text-To-Speech Deamon. This is a project that aims to give KDE
applications a standardized way for speech synthesis. In order to do so,
the driver for the actual speech synthesizer is loaded as a plug-in.
kttsd is yet in development, but will eventually be added either to
the kdelibs, kdebase or
kdeaccessibility
package.
M
MSAA
Microsoft Active Accessibility. This is a part of the Microsoft Windows
operating system that collects accessibility relevant information from
MSAA aware applications and offers these information to
assistive technologies.
MSAA was not designed to be the only source of information that is used by assistive
technologies. It rather complements existing technologies for determining
what is on the screen (such as
MSAM).
MSAM
Microsoft Screen Access Model. This is a technology that can be used on the
Microsoft Windows operating system for enquiring screen contents from any
application. MSAM does only provide screen contents, not meta-information
(as the
role or the
state of a GUI element).
In order to get access to these meta-information
assistive technologies have to use
MSAA
in addition to MSAM.
P
Proklam
Former name of
kttsd
R
Relation
The relation between two GUI elements. Examples for such relations are that one element is a label for an other element (for example a label for a text input field), an element is controlled by an other element or that the contents logically flow from one element to an other.
Role
The role of a GUI element. An element can be an alert to the user, an arrow, an object that allows to select a date, a check box, a dialog, a menu etc.
S
Speaker plug-ins
The Speaker plug-ins add a very simple text-to-speech function to Konqueror and Kate.
Older versions call IBM ViaVoice or Festival directly; a new version will be released with
kttsd.
The Speaker plug-ins are very simple and do not have the functionality of a screen reader like
Gnopernicus.
State
The state of a GUI element. For example an element can be active, editable, focusable, focused, selectable, selected etc.
U
UAAG
User Agent Accessibility Guidelines, released by the
WAI
as guidelines for the implementation of accessible internet browsers.
Related internet site: User Agent Accessibility Guidelines
UNO Accessibility API
Universal Network Objects Accessibility Application Programming Interface. This is the accessibility framework of OpenOffice.org.
Related internet sites: OpenOffice.org Accessibility Project, Universal Network Objects (UNO), UNO Accessibility API (UAA)
W
WAI
Web Accessibility Initiative, a sub-project of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) pursuing accessibility of the Web.
Related internet sites: WAI home page, W3C home page
WCAG
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, released by the
WAI
as guidelines for the creation of accessible sites.
Related internet site: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
X
XAG
XML Accessibility Guidelines, written by the
WAI
as guidelines for the implementation of accessible XML based-applications.
Related internet site: XML Accessibility Guidelines
