A glossary of terms relevant to disability, accessibility and technology

Electronic files with formatting information that is software dependent.

Partial or “legal” visual impairment based on standard vision being defined as 20/20 visual acuity and an average range of 180 degrees in peripheral vision; thus, people are defined as being legally blind if after methods of correction, such as glasses or contact lenses, they have a visual acuity of 20/200 or higher, or a range of peripheral vision under 20 degrees.

A system of embossed characters formed by using a braille cell, a combination of six dots consisting of two vertical columns of three dots each. Each simple braille character is formed by one or more of these dots and occupies a full cell or space. Some braille may use eight dots.

Software designed to access and display information available on the web. Browsers may be graphical or text-based. Text-only browsers cannot display images, sound clips, video and plug-in features that graphical browsers can. Talking browsers are also available for use by people who have difficulty reading text due to a learning disability or visual impairment.