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ACCESS Project: Accessible College Campuses For Everyone Site Surveys

Accessible: An accessible facility is designed such that it can be used by persons with any of a range of physical and cognitive disabilities as effectively as by fully abled persons.

*Access barrier: Any obstruction that prevents people with disabilities from using standard facilities, equipment and resources.

*Accessible Web design: Creating World Wide Web pages according to universal design principles to eliminate or reduce barriers, including those that affect people with disabilities.

*Accommodation: An adjustment to make a program, facility, or resource accessible to a person with a disability.

Acronyms: A listing of all campus acronyms and the names they represent is available on the 16 Campuses page.

*ALT attribute: HTML code that works in combination with graphical tags to provide alternative text for graphical elements.

*Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA): A comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, public services, public accommodations and services operated by private entities, and telecommunications .

*Digital: Computer formatted data or information.

*Disability: Physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; a record of such an impairment; or being regarded as having such an impairment (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990). Discrimination: Act of making a difference in treatment or favor on a basis other than individual merit.

Everyone: includes any individual with any level of ability.

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*Facility: All or any portion of a physical complex, including buildings, structures, equipment, grounds, roads, and parking lots.

Functional: A level of accessible design that works for the disabled as well in practice as in theory (often exceeding official standards).

*HTML validation: Process that analyzes HTML documents identifies HTML errors and non-standard codes.

*HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP): Communication protocol used by the World Wide Web to transfer text, graphics, audio, and video.

*Hypertext Markup Language (HTML): Programming language or code used to create World Wide Web pages.

*Internet: Computer network connecting government, education, commercial, other organization and individual computer systems.

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*Major life activities: Functions such as caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, working, and participating in community activities (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990).

Meet: Indicates that facilities comply with minimum official accessibility standards.

*Mobility impairment: Disability that affects movement ranging from gross motor skills such as walking to fine motor movement involving manipulation of objects by hand.

*Multimedia: In terms of electronic information, any data which is presented through several formats including text, graphics, moving pictures and sound.

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*Physical or mental impairment: Any physiological disorder or condition, cosmetic disfigurement, or anatomical loss affecting one or more of the following body systems: neurological; musculoskeletal; special sense organs; respiratory, including speech organs; cardiovascular; reproductive; digestive; genito-urinary; hemic and lymphatic; skin; and endocrine; or any mental or psychological disorder, such as mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990).

*Qualified individual with a disability: An individual with a disability who, with or without reasonable modification to rules, policies, or practices, the removal of architectural, communication, or transportation barriers, or the provision of auxiliary aids and services, meets the essential eligibility requirements for the receipt of services or the participation in programs or activities provided by a public entity (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990).

*Screen reader: Software used to echo text on a computer screen to audio output, often used by people who are blind, with visual impairments, or with learning disabilities.

*Server: Any computer that stores information that is available to other users, often over the Internet.

*Standard HTML: Version of HTML accessible by all browsers.

Surveys: Visits by ACCESS teams of students and faculty to the 16 campuses to quantify compliance with official wheelchair accessibility standards and/or exceeding functionality.

*Tag: HTML code that prescribes the structure and formatting of Web pages.

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UNC: The University of North Carolina

*Universal design: Designing programs, services, tools, and facilities so that they are useable, without modification, by the widest range of users possible, taking into account a variety of abilities and disabilities.

*Vision impairments: Complete or partial loss of ability to see, caused by a variety of injuries or diseases including congenital defects. Legal blindness is defined as visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye with correcting lenses, or widest diameter of visual field subtending an angular distance no greater than 20 degrees.

Wheelchair user: One with a disability that impairs the ability to walk who thus requires pathways navigable by a wheelchair to maintain an active lifestyle.

*World Wide Web (WWW, W3, or Web): Hypertext and multimedia gateway to the Internet.

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