Accessible: In the case of a facility, readily usable by a particular individual; in the case of a program or activity, presented or provided in such a way that a particular individual can participate, with or without auxiliary aid(s); in the case of electronic resources, accessible with or without adaptive computer technology.

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

Accessible route: A continuous, unobstructed path connecting all accessible elements and spaces of a building or facility that meets the requirements of ADAAG.

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.

Adaptive technology: Hardware or software products that provide access to a computer that is otherwise inaccessible to an individual with a disability.

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

Alteration: Modification made to an existing building or facility that goes beyond normal maintenance activities and affects or could affect usability.

Alternative keyboard: A keyboard that is different from a standard computer keyboard in its size or layout of keys.

American Sign Language (ASL):  The linguistically complete and distinct language of the American Deaf community, also used in parts of Canada.  ASL has its own syntax and grammar.  While it does borrow some words from English (which are spelled with the 26 different finger shapes) it has its own vocabulary and does not use English word order.  Motions of the hands and arms, shapes of the hands, the locations of the arms and hands in the space around the body, and expressions on the face (which are not mouthed English words) form the building blocks of ASL.  See also: Sign Language, Deaf, Interpreter.

American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII): Standard for unformatted plain text which enables transfer of data between platforms and computer systems.

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