Glossary

Structuring the learning environment, including course materials, such that students who have disabilities can participate and learn without undue burden.

An accessibility statement acts as resource for those who have questions about the accessibility features of your resource. It should provide an overview of accessibility features and contact information in case there are any problems.

In the present context, accommodations are changes and/or exceptions we make in our course delivery so that students with disabilities can access learning alongside their peers.

The American with Disabilities Act, often shortened to ADA, was passed in 1990 in order to prohibit discrimination against people with various types of disabilities.

Assistive technology is any item, piece of equipment, software program, or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of persons with disabilities.^[1]

An altnernate writing system read with fingers. Usually displayed using embossed paper or a refreshable digital display.

BRF means "Braille Ready Format" and is a type of text file-format which can be rendered as braille using certain softward and hardware materials.

Closed captions are subtitles which can be turned off and on which are intended to reflect the speech and audio in a media file.

In an educational setting, a disability is any physical, visual, auditory, cognitive, mental, or emotional condition that limits a student's access to learning. The social model of disability is usuall the most relevant model when speaking of an educational context.

An accessibility tool which allows screan magnification and voiceover -- a powerful software fusion of the functions of ZoomText and JAWS.

Haptic feedback occurs when technology communicates to the user through the sense of touch -- this could be vibration of a proximity sensor, a "thunk" feeling when selecting a button, etc.

A voiceover software/screen reader to allow those with low or no vision to use screen-based devices.

Learning Management System such as Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, or Google Classroom which is intended to host and communicate teaching materials, student work, and grades for courses.

The information connected to a file that may not be part of the main function of a file. A file's metadata might include its date or location of origin, the title of certain types of files, or file ownership or modifications.

Nemeth Code is a braille code writing and expressing mathematic and scientific information specifically.

Open Educational Resources are Resources published under certain copyright freedoms, most often creative commons licenses, which make them free to use, adapt, publish, adn distribute to students (depending on the specific type of license).

Any disability or impairment that leads to difficulty manipulating and reading from a physical book.

A refreshable braille display or RBD is a tacticle device that takes input from a copmuter, phone, etc. and gives an output in braille that is not permanent, but can be updated as the text output changes.

Assistive technology (primarily software) which converts text, images, etc. into alternative output such as speech or braille.

Sometimes call speech recognition, speech-to-text software converts audio such as spoken words into text on a computer or similar device.

A style in Word, Google Docs, Pages, or similar is the collected details of formatting applied to text of a certain type or level, such as "body text" or "heading 2." Using styles allows a document to be quickly and consistently formatted, enables the ability to create a clear structure and generate a table of contents, and -- most importantly -- assists with the accessibility and navigation of documents.

A feature that enables a touch screen laptop using certain operating systems to function as a tablet rather than a traditional desktop.

Tagging a document is a way of marking up a document (often in the background, metadata, or otherwise invisible formatting information) to indicate different sections or types of information within a document. For instance, tagging a PDF might indicate the heading, an image, body text, page number, etc. and make assistive technolgy better able to interpret the layout of the document.

Talkback is a software feature which gives non-visual feedback (either haptic or audible)  when using a device such as a phone in order to assist people who have low or no vision to use the technology.

Text-to-speech software takes the text on a screen and reads it aloud to the audience. While screen reader software will read or describe everything on a screen, text-to-speech softwardprovides a smaller and more focused version -- often just reading text when selected or just the text of a document.

A transcript is a written record of what is spoken (sometimes including other sounds) primarily during a particular meeting, or from an audio file, video file, or other multimedia element.

Universal Design, or US is the concept that bases designs on being adaptable and usable for the widest variety of users and audiences.

Universal design for learning, or UDL, takes the principles of universal design (primarily adaptability and usability for a wide audience) and applies them to the learning process.

VoiceOver is a built in Screen Reader on all Apple products.

VTT Files are a type (one of the most popular types) of video subtitle fil that can be used for closed captioning. (It stands for Video Text Tracks format).

A maginification and reading program which enlarges sections of the screen to allow interaction for low vision users.