The phrase "click here" is a bad linking practice. It
makes navigating the web difficult for both sighted and
unsighted users. Link text should be meaningful enough to
make sense when read out of context. For more information
consult
"Click here" don't use it...
Captions
Captions are synchronized visual and/or text alternative for both speech and non-speech audio information needed to understand the media content. They are synchronized with audio or video. Captions include dialogue and, unlike subtitles, also identify who is speaking. They convey information about spoken words and non-spoken sounds, such as music or sound effects. Captions benefit people who are Deaf or hard-of-hearing, and anyone who cannot hear the audio (e.g., someone in a noisy environment). Captions are generally rendered graphically above, below, or superimposed over video. Captions can be closed or open. Closed captions are encoded or invisible and must be decoded or made visible. Open captions can't be turned off.
Card Sorting
Card sorting is a categorization method where users sort
cards depicting various concepts into categories. You start
with a list of all the items you want sorted. Write down each
item on a separate index card. Give your user(s) the stack of
cards and have them divide the cards up into piles, telling
them that the cards should be grouped the way they (the
users) best see fit. This technique is best used in the early
stages of development. For more information consult
Card Sorting.
Cascade
The
CSS
cascade assigns a weight to each style rule. When several
rules apply, the one with the greatest weight takes
precedence. You can think of some rules coming from "higher
up" in the cascade; these combine with the rules at the next
level down, and the result combines with the next level, and
so on, until finally you have the actual rules to be applied
to the document pooled at the "base" of the cascade.
The cascade is the mechanism by which rules from different
places are combined to create an über-stylesheet.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
Style sheets refer to a set of rules that allow you to
control how you would like your document to be rendered. It
is a mechanism to primarily separate presentation from
content. With the
HTML
and style sheets approach, structured content goes into the
HTML
document, and the appearance, or presentation information
goes into a style sheet.
CSS
allow you to control the rendering of elements on a web page
without compromising its structure. Before
CSS
, nearly all of the presentational attributes of an
HTML
document were contained within the
HTML
code; all font colors, background styles, alignment
specification, boxes, borders, and sizes had to be explicitly
described, often repeatedly, in the midst of the
HTML
code.
CSS
allows web designers to extract this information, resulting
in considerably simpler
HTML
code, supplemented by an auxiliary style sheet written in
the language of
CSS
. The structure and semantic markup is restricted to the
HTML
code, while the presentational markup is restricted to the
CSS
code. For more information consult
Cascading Style Sheets.
Center for Applied Special Technology
(CAST)
The organization that originally developed the website
accessibility checker Bobby. For more information, consult
www.cast.org.
Child
In
HTML, an element A is called the child of element B if an only if
B is the parent of A.
ChromeVox
A screen reader extension for the Chrome browser.
Chunking
Chunking is the way that the brain deals with complexity.
Humans short term memory can retain, at most, only about
7±2 things at one time according to George A. Miller.
For more information consult
Chunking.
Cognitive Disability
A disability involves a person's capacity for processing
information and knowledge. For more information consult
Cognitive Disabilities.
Cognitive Walkthrough
A cognitive walkthrough is a review technique where you
construct task scenarios from a specification and get a user
to role play the part of walking through the task. They act
as if the interface was actually built and they (in the role
of a typical user) was working through the tasks. Each step
the user would take is scrutinized.
Color Contrast
Color contrast refers to how close hues are in value. The
human eye requires good contrast for visibility and
legibility. Contrast creates visual interest and helps
deliver accurate information. It can make a big difference on
a web page. Colors that are close in value tend to blur
together, and their borders "melt." This can create
legibility problems. For example, black text on a dark blue
background is difficult to read.
Color Deficiency
Color deficiency is a lack of the ability to discriminate
between colors. Designs that rely totally on color to convey
essential information will be inaccessible to a small
percentage of women and a larger percentage of men.
Color Saturation
Color saturation refers to the intensity of a color.
CC/PP profiles are a method that allows a description of
device capabilities and user preferences to be delivered to
the server, so that content can be adapted to the device
according the preferences of the user.
Consistency
Consistency is the quality of an interface when it
behaves in ways users expect. It means that users can apply
the knowledge obtained in some previous experience to enhance
current performance.
Content Management System
A content management system separates the content of a
Web site from its code, allowing nontechnical users to
update, approve and post content.
Controlled Vocabulary
A controlled vocabulary is a list of terms that have been
specified explicitly. All terms in a controlled vocabulary
should have a clear-cut, non-redundant definition.
Contextual Inquiry
Contextual inquiry is a structured field interviewing
usability evaluation method. It involves conversation as well
as observation. Contextual inquiriy requires a high degree
of skill from the usability specialist, in order to ask
appropriate questions without interrupting the participants'
work flow or influencing their responses. Sometimes two
usability specialists are used for a contextual inquiry
project, one to conduct the interview, and one to observe and
record participant behavior. You can discover unmet needs and
understand existing behaviors in greater depth with this
method.
Contextual Selector
In
CSS a contextual selector is a type of selector that selects by
the context in which an element or attribute occurs in the
markup structure of a document.
Control Structures
In programming control structures are used to control
the logical flow through a script.
