ARIA
“Accessible Rich Internet Applications” is a specification created by the WAI which gives means to help building more accessible web interface for disabled people. It particularly helps to make dynamic content using scripts compatible to assistive technologies. It contains some HTML attributes such as role, or various attributes beginning by aria-.
Assistive technologies
Assistive technologies are technical assistance tools for users (screen reader, Braille pad, screen magnifier…) to use digital tools (computers, smartphones…) and more. They can sometimes interpret the content thanks to the HTML semantic structure of the source code of web pages and can thus, for example, allow to navigate from heading to heading. They can sometimes allow you to enlarge font sizes or change text colors. Each tool has its own functionalities depending on the help it wishes to provide according to the type of disability.
Braille pad
Assistive technology that looks like a small digital tablet that plugs to a computer. Small spikes move up and down on the tablet to form Braille writing as you read. It is used by blind people who can read Braille.
RGAA
The RGAA is the French Reference Document for the Improvement of Accessibility (in French “Référentiel Général d’Amélioration de l’Accessibilité”). It is based on WCAG. It helps to create web content accessible to everyone and to audit websites according to a certain number of criteria and according to different levels (A and AA; the AAA level is no longer part of the RGAA since its version 4…). French law obliges certain content from certain organizations to be accessible (in particular the websites of public services and many private websites).
Official documentation (in French)
Screen reader
Assistive technology in the form of software or application that reproduces, via voice synthesis, what is on the screen. Screen readers are used primarily by blind people, but also by people who are visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing (a “speech viewer” mode is available) or have cognitive or motor disabilities (see WebAIM Survey #8).
There are free (NVDA, for Windows), paid (Jaws, for Windows) or native screen readers directly integrated into the operating system (Narrator on Windows, VoiceOver on MacOS and iOS, ORCA on Linux, Talkback on Android).
W3C
The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) is a standardisation organization founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee. It has notably created the HTML and CSS standards. It keeps them up to date and makes them evolve.
WAI
The WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) is an initiative launched by the W3C in 1997 in order to propose technical solutions for the web accessibility to everyone and especially to disabled people. It has developed recommendations for accessibility, including WCAG.
WCAG
The WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) are a standard created by the WAI in 1999 which define a standard of accessibility of web contents throfugh different recommendations according to 3 levels (A, AA and AAA).
Official documentation on w3.org
Do I forget a definition of an unknown word in my articles?
Don’t hesite to comment bellow ;-)