Basic Information Technology Terminology

Kevin Price

Center for Assistive Technology & Environmental Access (CATEA) Georgia Institute of Technology

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

  International consortium where industry organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards Develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential.

www.w3c.org

Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

 Project of the W3C, which focuses on developing strategies, guidelines, and resources to help make the Web accessible to people with disabilities.    Protocols and Formats Working Group (PFWG) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG) Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AUWG)   User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (UAWG) Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group (ERT WG)

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

 Developed by WAI of the W3C  1.0 current; 2.0 last call working draft by 5/31/06  3 voluntary compliance or priority levels A- Level 1 AA – Level 2 AAA – Level 3 www.w3c.org/wai/

Section 508

 Federal departments must:  Accommodate employees with disabilities.

  Design accessible websites.

Procure accessible information technology.

 U.S. Dept. of Ed letter interpreted Section 508 applicable to state entities, including some public colleges and universities.

 Not tied in with Federal funding.

www.section508.gov

Markup or Code

 General term to describe the programming behind the web page.

HyperText Markup Language (HTML)

 Programming language in which most web pages are written.  Web browsers interupt to display web pages.

XML, PHP, Cold Fusion

 Other types of programming languages.

 Each has their own distinct code.

 Some are “server-side” languages which require specialized technology on the “back-end” to translate into HTML, which is then sent to the user’s web browser.

Tags

 “Behind the scenes” framework for a web page i.e. headings, lists, links, paragraphs    All have starting Most, but not all have ending Start and end tags create elements.

Framework of HTML Webpage

Content goes here

Hypertext

 Most web sites utilize, which includes links to other pages.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

 Address of any given page.

 http://www.sedbtac.org/  Used in the creation and navigation of hypertext.

Skip-nav

 Link that enables users to skip over navigation links and directly access the content.

 Helps users of screen readers, low vision, small screen devices, and keyboard-only access  Specifically required by Section 508.

 Examples:  How skip-nav works : www.catea.org/grade/legal/  Skip-nav link display using css : www.adagame.org/

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

 Separate file that is a set of instructions which tell how to display a given webpage (in terms of text fonts, colors, etc.)  Separates content from presentation.

 Require by 508 and WCAG to test if web page is readable with style sheets “off”  CSS In Action: www.csszengarden.com

Alt-text

 Text read or displayed if images unavailable due to disability or technology.

 Typically seen by visual users when a pointing device (i.e. mouse) is placed over an image.

Federal Court Concepts

Multimedia

 Any file format or application that uses sound and/or video.

Applet

 A program running or embedded within a web application, such as Java or Flash.

Plug-in

 Any software program a user needs to download in order to run a file, such as Flash or PDF.

Tables

 Two kinds of tables used in web applications:  Layout tables  Data tables  Standards apply to these types of tables which convey or contain information.

Courseware

 Software products used to provide content in a consistent manner.

 Blackboard  WebCT

Frames

 Basically, multiple web pages within one web page.  May or may not be visible as “frames”.

 Some courseware utilizes, i.e. Web CT and Blackboard.  Example: http://www.hyperorg.com/misc/DoubleTreeShow_files/fra me.html