Key Terms
The terms listed below appear across our resources, trainings, and guidance. This page is designed to help everyone share the same language and understanding when discussing digital accessibility and educational systems.
Key Terms at a Glance
- Accessible
- Learners with disabilities can access the same information, engage in the same interactions, and benefit from the same learning experiences as learners without disabilities, with the same timeliness, privacy, independence, and ease.
- Accessible Digital Educational Materials
- Digital learning materials that are designed so learners with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with them. Under ADA Title II, state and local education agencies must ensure these materials meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA as the minimum technical standard.
- Accessible Format
- An alternative presentation of content that provides equal access for a learner with a disability when the original format is not usable to them. Examples include braille, large print, audio, digital text, and tactile graphics for text-based materials; captions, audio description, and American Sign Language (ASL) for video; and transcripts for audio.
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
- A federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in public life, including education. Title II of the ADA applies to state and local government entities, such as state and local educational agencies. In 2024, the Department of Justice issued a rule clarifying accessibility requirements for web content and mobile apps.
- Assistive Technology (AT)
- AT is both a device and a service. As a device, it is defined under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as “any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether modified or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability.” An AT service is defined under IDEA as “any service that directly assists a child with a disability in the selection, acquisition, or use of an AT device.”
- Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
- The U.S. special education law that ensures services for infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities through age 21. IDEA mandates special education services provided by state and local educational agencies.
- Individualized Education Program (IEP)
- A legal document for a student with a disability that is developed, reviewed, and revised in accordance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) regulations.
- Local Educational Agency (LEA)
- A legal term for public education agencies that are locally situated, such as education service agencies or school districts.
- State Educational Agency (SEA)
- A legal term for a state department of education.
All Key Terms
- Accessibility Overlay
- A tool that attempts to improve the accessibility of a website by modifying the presentation of the content to users in real-time, such as by changing the font or color contrast. Overlays are typically third-party tools and can interfere with assistive technologies like screen readers. The Overlay Fact Sheet provides detailed information about accessibility overlays and cautions to consider.
- Accessible
- Learners with disabilities can access the same information, engage in the same interactions, and benefit from the same learning experiences as learners without disabilities, with the same timeliness, privacy, independence, and ease.
- Accessible Digital Educational Materials
- Digital learning materials that are designed so learners with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with them. Under ADA Title II, state and local education agencies must ensure these materials meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA as the minimum technical standard.
- Accessible Educational Materials (AEM)
- Defined by the Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education, “accessible educational materials (AEM)” are “print- and technology-based educational materials, including printed and electronic textbooks and related core materials that are required by state and local educational agencies (SEA and LEAs) for use by all students, produced or rendered in accessible media, written and published primarily for use in early learning programs, elementary, or secondary schools to support teaching and learning.” AEM can be digitally accessible from the beginning, such as accessible digital educational materials, or rendered in accessible formats.
- Accessible Format
- An alternative presentation of content that provides equal access for a learner with a disability when the original format is not usable to them. Examples include braille, large print, audio, digital text, and tactile graphics for text-based materials; captions, audio description, and American Sign Language (ASL) for video; and transcripts for audio.
- Accessible Media Producer (AMP)
- Agencies, organizations, or other services that convert materials, including textbooks and related curriculum materials, to one or more student-ready accessible formats.
- Accommodation
- An allowed adjustment or alteration to a curriculum that provides access for a student with a disability. An accommodation does not change what a student is expected to master; rather, it provides access. The objectives of the curriculum remain intact.
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
- A federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in public life, including education. Title II of the ADA applies to state and local government entities, such as state and local educational agencies. In 2024, the Department of Justice issued a rule clarifying accessibility requirements for web content and mobile apps.
- Assistive Technology (AT)
- AT is both a device and a service. As a device, it is defined under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as “any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether modified or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability.” An AT service is defined under IDEA as “any service that directly assists a child with a disability in the selection, acquisition, or use of an AT device.”
- Audio
- An accessible format that uses human-recorded or synthetic voice narration to present information. Audio can be stored and transmitted through both analog and digital means.
- Audio Described Video
- The verbal explanation of essential visual elements in a video or other multimedia resource, providing access to the visual content when the audio component alone is insufficient for perceiving on-screen actions.
- Authorized User (AU)
- An agent of a state educational agency who has access to the National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC) database in order to download or to assign National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) fileset(s) for conversion to accessible formats in accordance with established agreements with the NIMAC. An AU can be a nonprofit organization or a governmental agency. Examples of AUs include accessible media producers (AMPs), such as Bookshare and State Instructional Resource Centers (IRCs).
- Braille
- Braille code is a tactile system of raised dots that enables students who are blind or have low vision to read through touch. Braille consists of patterns of raised dots arranged in cells of up to six dots in a 3×2 configuration. Each cell represents letters of the alphabet, punctuation, numbers, and whole words.
- Captions
- Synchronized text representations of audio content in videos or multimedia productions that include spoken words and other important audio information. Closed captions are captions that can be turned on and off by the user while open captions are always visible and cannot be turned off.
- Digital Text
- An accessible file format that contains both text and images. Examples of file types include accessible EPUB, HTML, MathML, and tagged PDF.
- Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
- The U.S. special education law that ensures services for infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities through age 21. IDEA mandates special education services provided by state and local educational agencies.
- Individualized Education Program (IEP)
- A legal document for a student with a disability that is developed, reviewed, and revised in accordance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) regulations.
- Large Print
- An accessible format provided in a hard copy document containing a font size of 18 points or larger. Additional formatting considerations pertain to styles used for font face and punctuation, format options, use of color, paper selection, and document size.
- Local Educational Agency (LEA)
- A legal term for public education agencies that are locally situated, such as education service agencies or school districts.
- National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC)
- The National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC) is an online repository operated by the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) that receives National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) source files in accordance with instructional material contract language set by states and school districts. Once a file is received, the NIMAC validates, reviews, and catalogs it in its repository.
- National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS)
- A technical standard used by publishers to produce electronic source files of textbooks and related instructional materials that can be converted into different types of formats, including braille, large print, and accessible digital text. NIMAS files are not in a student-ready format.
- Portable Document Format (PDF)
- A file format developed by Adobe that maintains a document’s formatting and layout regardless of the software or hardware used to view it, making it easy to share and print. A popular file format, PDFs are frequently non-accessible for students with disabilities. PDFs are accessible when creators follow common practices for accessible documents.
- Procurement
- The process used by state and local educational agencies (SEA and LEAs) to source or purchase educational materials from vendors and publishers. Procurement is also the process by which SEAs and LEAs require publishers to submit NIMAS files to the NIMAC.
- Section 121 / Chafee Amendment of the Copyright Act
- Section 121 allows certain organizations (e.g., schools, libraries, and nonprofits that serve people with print disabilities) to make accessible versions of copyrighted books and other published works without needing permission from the copyright holder.
- State Educational Agency (SEA)
- A legal term for a state department of education.
- Tactile Graphics
- Graphics that convey non-textual information through touch to people who are blind or have low vision. These may include tactile representations of pictures, maps, graphs, diagrams and other images.
- Text Transcripts of Audio
- A text version of the speech and non-speech audio information needed to understand the content in an audio-only file.
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
- Technical standards developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to make websites and other digital materials accessible for individuals with disabilities. The minimum standard required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II is WCAG version 2.1, Level AA.