Accessibility Glossary
As FSCJ continues advancing its Digital Accessibility Initiative, you may begin to see new terms and acronyms related to accessibility standards, compliance requirements, and digital content creation.
This glossary provides brief explanations of common terms such as WCAG, ADA, VPAT, and a11y that are often referenced in accessibility discussions. This page is intended to serve as a quick reference for faculty and staff and includes links to external resources for those who would like to learn more.
Understanding these terms can help support our shared goal of creating digital content that is accessible and usable for everyone.
ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)
A U.S. civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities. Title II of the ADA applies to state and local government entities, including public colleges, and requires that their programs, services, and activities be accessible.
ACR (Accessibility Conformance Report)
A document that describes how well a product or system meets accessibility standards such as WCAG. The ACR is typically produced by vendors and is based on the structure of the VPAT template.
A11y (Accessibility)
A commonly used abbreviation for accessibility. The “11” represents the eleven letters between the “a” and the “y” in the word accessibility. It is widely used in the accessibility and web development communities.
Alt Text (Alternative Text)
Text descriptions added to images that allow screen readers to convey the meaning of the image to individuals who are blind or have low vision.
Assistive Technology (AT)
Hardware or software used by individuals with disabilities to access digital content. Examples include screen readers, screen magnifiers, speech recognition software, and alternative input devices.
Accessibility Testing Methods
Automated Testing
The use of software tools to scan digital content and automatically identify common accessibility issues. Automated tools can detect items such as missing alternative text, insufficient color contrast, or improper heading structure. While these tools can quickly identify many issues, they cannot detect every accessibility barrier.
Example: The Canvas Course Accessibility Checker helps identify common accessibility issues within Canvas content.
Manual Testing
The process of a person reviewing digital content to identify accessibility issues that automated tools cannot detect. Manual testing may include navigating content using only a keyboard, reviewing captions for accuracy, or using assistive technologies such as screen readers to confirm that content is usable and understandable.
DOJ (U.S. Department of Justice)
The federal agency responsible for enforcing the ADA. The DOJ issued the final rule requiring state and local governments to ensure that web and mobile content meets WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessibility standards.
HECVAT (Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit)
A security and privacy assessment questionnaire developed by EDUCAUSE to help higher education institutions evaluate vendor products. Some versions include accessibility-related questions.
Visit the EDUCAUSE website to learn more about the HECVAT
PDF Accessibility
The process of ensuring that PDF documents are structured so they can be read by assistive technologies. Accessible PDFs typically include tags, headings, alt text for images, and a logical reading order.
Screen Reader
Assistive technology that reads digital text aloud or converts it to braille for users who are blind or have low vision. Common examples include JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver.
Section 508
A U.S. federal law that requires federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible. While Section 508 applies specifically to federal agencies, it references WCAG standards and has influenced accessibility practices across many sectors.
VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template)
A standardized template used by vendors to document how their products conform to accessibility standards such as WCAG. Institutions often request a completed VPAT when evaluating new software.
The completed document is typically called an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR).
Visit the Information Technology Industry Council website to learn more about the VPAT
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)
An internationally recognized set of technical standards for making web and digital content accessible. WCAG is developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) through its Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).
The DOJ rule requires compliance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA.
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
An international standards organization that develops web standards, including WCAG.
WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative)
A program within W3C that develops guidelines, resources, and standards to improve web accessibility worldwide.
