Glossary

Search results

Acceptance Testing(also: User Acceptance Testing, UAT, Acceptance Tests)

A form of software testing that validates whether a system meets its specified requirements from the end user's perspective. In accessibility, acceptance tests simulate real user interaction scenarios — such as navigating a web page using only the keyboard or activating…

Accessibility Bug Report(also: ABR, Accessibility Defect Report)

A bug report that specifically documents an accessibility barrier or failure in software. These reports describe issues that prevent or hinder people with disabilities from using an application, such as missing alternative text, unlabeled form controls, keyboard navigation…

Accessibility Certification(also: Third-Party Accessibility Certification, Accessibility Accreditation)

A formal assessment and endorsement of a website or digital product's accessibility by an independent third-party organisation, as distinct from voluntary self-declaration of conformance. Certification schemes exist in several European countries with different national…

Accessibility Evaluation(also: Accessibility Audit, Accessibility Assessment, Accessibility Review)

The process of assessing whether a digital product, website, or application meets accessibility standards and is usable by people with disabilities. Accessibility evaluation typically combines automated testing tools (which can check technical requirements like image alt text…

Accessibility Evaluation Method(also: AEM, Accessibility Testing Method)

A structured approach or procedure used to assess the accessibility of digital products, websites, or applications. Accessibility evaluation methods include conformance review (checking against standards like WCAG), barrier walkthrough (assessing barriers in context of specific…

Accessibility Metric(also: Web Accessibility Metric, Accessibility Score)

A quantitative measure used to assess and compare the accessibility quality of web pages or websites. Accessibility metrics typically calculate a score (often 0-100%) based on the number and severity of WCAG violations found, weighted by conformance level (Level A weighted…

Accessibility Monitoring(also: Web Accessibility Monitoring, Accessibility Observatory)

Accessibility monitoring is the ongoing process of tracking and measuring the accessibility level of websites or digital products over time. Because web content is frequently updated, changes can inadvertently introduce new accessibility barriers or degrade previously achieved…

Accessibility Testing(also: A11y Testing)

The practice of evaluating software, websites, or digital products to ensure they can be used by people with disabilities, including those using assistive technologies such as screen readers, voice recognition, and switch devices. Accessibility testing encompasses automated…

Automated Evaluation Tool(also: AET, Automated Testing Tool, Accessibility Checker)

Software that automatically scans websites, applications, or documents to detect accessibility violations against standards such as WCAG or Section 508. Common examples include WAVE, axe, AChecker, and Lighthouse. While these tools can efficiently identify many technical…

Bug Report(also: Defect Report, Issue Report)

A structured document submitted to a bug tracking system that describes a software defect, including steps to reproduce, expected behavior, and actual behavior. In the accessibility context, bug reports are a critical mechanism for users with disabilities and developers to…

Bug Repository(also: Bug Tracker, Issue Tracker, Bug Tracking System)

A software system used to record, track, and manage bug reports throughout their lifecycle. Popular examples include Bugzilla, Jira, GitHub Issues, and Monorail (used by Google Chromium). Bug repositories serve as archives of defect information and are valuable for research into…

Caption Accuracy(also: Captioning Accuracy, Transcription Accuracy)

A measure of how correctly captions represent the spoken content, typically expressed as the percentage of words that match the ground truth transcript. Caption accuracy is critical for deaf and hard of hearing users who depend on captions for comprehension, particularly in…

Code Review(also: Peer Code Review)

A software quality assurance practice in which one or more developers systematically examine source code written by a colleague, looking for bugs, design issues, readability problems, and adherence to coding standards. Code reviews can be asynchronous (reviewing pull requests)…

Code Walkthrough

A form of peer review in which a developer leads colleagues through a segment of code, explaining its logic, structure, and design decisions line by line. Unlike pair programming where both developers actively write code, a walkthrough is typically led by one person while others…

Conformance Testing(also: Compliance Testing, Guideline Review)

An accessibility evaluation method that checks whether a website or digital product meets the requirements specified by accessibility guidelines or standards such as WCAG. Conformance testing can be performed manually by human evaluators or through automated testing tools that…

Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery(also: CI/CD, Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery)

Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) is a software development practice where code changes are automatically built, tested, and prepared for release on an ongoing basis. In accessibility practice, CI/CD pipelines can incorporate automated accessibility testing…

Controlled Language(also: Controlled Natural Language, CL)

An explicitly defined restriction of a natural language that specifies constraints on vocabulary, grammar, and style to improve clarity, consistency, and machine processability of text. In accessibility, controlled language rules can be applied to improve the quality of content…

Controlled Language(also: CL, Controlled Natural Language)

A restricted subset of a natural language that limits vocabulary, grammar, and style to reduce ambiguity and improve clarity and consistency in writing. In accessibility, controlled language rules can be applied to verify and improve the quality of text alternatives for images,…

Correctness(also: Precision, Validity)

In the context of accessibility evaluation, correctness (also called precision) is the proportion of reported accessibility problems that are true problems — that is, issues that genuinely affect users with disabilities rather than false positives. A high correctness rate means…

Evaluation Reliability(also: Inter-rater Reliability, Evaluator Agreement)

The extent to which independent accessibility evaluations of the same content produce consistent results. High reliability means that different evaluators using the same method will identify similar sets of accessibility problems, while low reliability indicates that results…

F-measure(also: F-score, F1 Score)

A metric that combines correctness (precision) and sensitivity (recall) into a single balanced score, calculated as the harmonic mean of the two values. In accessibility evaluation research, the F-measure provides a single number representing the overall effectiveness of an…

Hallucination(also: AI Hallucination, Confabulation)

In the context of AI and large language models, the generation of content that is plausible-sounding but not grounded in the input data or factual reality. Hallucinations pose a particular risk in accessibility applications such as captioning, audio description, or alt text…

Manual Accessibility Testing(also: Manual Testing, Manual Evaluation, Human Testing)

The process of evaluating web content accessibility through direct human inspection rather than automated tools. Manual testing is essential because many WCAG success criteria cannot be fully evaluated by automated means — they require human judgment about whether content is…

Remediation(also: Accessibility Remediation, Barrier Remediation)

The process of identifying and fixing accessibility barriers in existing digital content, tools, or platforms after they have been created or deployed. Remediation is typically a reactive approach to accessibility, addressing problems found through audits or user complaints.…

Sampling Method(also: Sampling, Page Sampling, Site Sampling)

A sampling method is a rule for selecting a subset of pages, screens, or components from a larger product to be evaluated for accessibility. Because full manual evaluation of every page on a real-world website, app, or PDF library is usually infeasible, every practical audit…

Sensitivity(also: Recall, Thoroughness, Completeness)

In the context of accessibility evaluation, sensitivity (also called recall or thoroughness) is the proportion of true accessibility problems that are successfully identified and reported by an evaluator. High sensitivity means that most real barriers are found, while low…

Web Compliance Engineering

A discipline within Web Engineering focused on the application of quality assurance, testing, and management processes to ensure that web applications conform to standards, policy environments, and other quality criteria such as accessibility requirements. Web Compliance…

Word Error Rate(also: WER)

A standard metric for evaluating speech recognition and captioning accuracy, calculated as the number of insertions, deletions, and substitutions needed to transform the transcribed text into the reference text, divided by the total number of words in the reference. Lower WER…

28 results.