A, B, C
Android
Android is an operating system for certain smart phones and tablets (these terms are all explained in the glossary).
App
App is short for 'application' and is very often used to describe a small program that it installed onto a mobile phone or tablet device. It could be anything from a word processor to a colour detector or train times finder.
Assistive/access technology
Assistive or access technology is any additional software or hardware that is required by someone, because of a disability, to enable them to use a computer. The two most common types of assistive technology for people with sight loss are screen magnification and screen reading software. It is also known as access or adaptive technology.
Braille embosser/printer
Braille embossers/printers produce braille output from a computer by punching dots onto paper. They connect to the computer in the same way as text printers but need special braille translation software, and can also be connected to notetakers and other devices.
Braille display
A braille display is a line of cells, each with six or eight pins that move up and down to represent dots of a braille cell. The display is used to represent a line of text on the computer screen. It is also called an electronic, soft or refreshable braille display.
Braille translation software
Used in conjunction with the braille embosser, braille translation software translates printed text into braille.
Browser
A browser is what you use to view websites on the Wide Wide Web. You're probably using a browser right now, since you're looking at a website! Common browsers are Internet Explorer and Firefox.
Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)
CCTV (also known as a video magnifier) is a magnifying aid for people with some useful vision. Printed material and objects can be placed under a camera and the magnified image is displayed on a television screen or computer monitor. They are mostly used for reading, but can also be used for writing and other activities such as sewing.
Cookies
Cookies are text files which a web site stores on your computer. They are used to identify you when you return to the website, so that the website can present you with customised pages. For instance, pages may contain a greeting that includes your name.
Cursor
A cursor is a marker (usually flashing) on the computer screen. It shows where the next typed character will be placed. This cursor can be modified in various ways to make it more visible for someone with a sight problem.
D, E, F
DAISY
DAISY stands for Digital Accessible Information System is a standard for digital talking books. DAISY books are typically used by people have 'print disabilities', including blindness, impaired vision and dyslexia. The DAISY format allows users to hear and navigate written material presented in an audible format. A 'DAISY player' is a device that will play a DAISY book.
Drive
A drive is a storage area attached to a computer.
Driver
Each device that is connected to a PC has to tell the operating system what it is and what it can do. This is done through a piece of software called a driver, which usually comes on a CD with the device and which must be installed before the device can communicate with the computer.
eBook
eBook stands for 'electronic book' (also known as a digital book). This is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices.
Email
Email stands for electronic mail. You can sign up for an email account and send and receive email messages via the internet. Popular email providers are Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail.
G, H, I
Hardware
Hardware is the physical parts of your technology. A mobile phone is hardware, so is a laptop, a computer, a mouse, a keyboard and so on.
Gigabyte
A gigabyte is a unit of measurement used for disks and memory. It is often referred to as a 'gig' and can be shortened to the acronym GB. One byte is a tiny amount of electronic information, so it is more usual to see things measured in larger units: around 1,000 bytes are known as one kilobyte (KB). Memory uses a binary number system and 1 KB is actually 2 to the power of 10, or 1024 bytes. One million bytes is a megabyte (MB), one billion (thousand million) bytes is a gigabyte (GB), and 1 thousand billion bytes is a terabyte (TB).
Icon
An icon is a small picture used to represent a file, folder or program. Icons are frequently found on the Desktop, Taskbar or program toolbars. They are useful for sighted users because they can complement or replace a longer text title.
Internet
The Internet is a vast network of interconnected computers. Most people connect to the Internet to view websites and read email. The Internet can do much more than that - for instance, it's possible to make phone calls over the Internet.
Internet Service Provider (ISP)
A company that provides access to the Internet (such as O2, TalkTalk, Sky, Virgin) is known as an Internet Service Provider.
Interface
The interface is what a program looks like. A good interface will help you to use the program without having to have an advanced knowledge of computers.
J, K, L
Nothing yet!
M, N, O
Modifier
A modifier is a key that can be used in conjunction with a second key and modifies its behaviour. Assistive technology may have its own modifier key so that its keystrokes do not conflict with the keystrokes used by the operating system (e.g. Windows) or other programs.
MP3
MP3 is a common music file format. It stands for for "Moving Picture Experts Group Phase 1, Audio Layer 3" - but you'll probably only need to know this for a pub quiz!
Notetaker
A notetaker is a specialist portable device that enables someone with a sight problem to take notes and retrieve them later in an accessible form. Electronic notetakers usually contain a diary and other applications and some have a keyboard for braille instead of QWERTY keyboard input. They do not generally incorporate a screen display.
Netbook
A netbook is a very small, light and relatively cheap laptop with limited functionality. You can usually use common software like Microsoft Word, and for browsing the Internet.It is intended for general and Internet use.
Operating system
An operating system is the software that supports the functions of your technology. For instance, on many computers the operating system is Windows, and on some smart phones, the operating system is Android. When you buy a bit of technology, it'll generally come with the operating system already installed - you shouldn't have to worry about it, but it's useful to know what it means.
Optical character recognition (OCR) software
OCR software is used in conjunction with a PC and camera or scanner to copy printed text to the computer and hold it electronically so it can be read by a screen reader or magnified with software.
P, Q, R, S
PC
PC stands for personal computer - or, more simply, it just means computer!
QWERTY keyboard
This is the name given to a standard layout of a computer keyboard. The word comes from the first six letters of the top row of keys.
Resolution
A screen is made up of thousands of dots, called pixels ("picture elements"), arranged on the screen in columns and rows. The characters, pictures and shapes that appear on the screen are created by changing the colors of these dots. The resolution of a monitor is the number of pixels used within it, and is given as two numbers for instance "1280 by 800" (1280 across the screen and 800 down). With a larger number of pixels ("higher resolution"), screen objects can be shown in more detail and more information can be displayed on the screen. Some programs are optimized for a particular resolution. Magnification users may prefer to work at low resolutions as this effectively magnifies screen elements, although it may also make them less distinct.
Scanner
A scanner is a device which captures an image of a page and enters it into the computers memory so it can then be manipulated as required. In conjunction with OCR software the text in the image can be extracted and read back using a screen reader.
Screen magnification software
Screen magnification software can magnify the text, menus and icons on a computer or mobile phone screen. Because screen magnification software increases the size of the image displayed on the screen, only a portion of the original screen image can be seen at one time. Normally the magnification will automatically follow the area of attention, for example the cursor.
Screen reader (or speech output) software
Screen readers sends screen text displayed on a computer or mobile phone screen to be spoken by a speech synthesiser. Common features include the ability to speak text on the full screen, a user defined area of the screen, a line, a word, individual letters or the phonetic equivalent of a letter and punctuation. A screen reader allows menus, dialog boxes, tool tips and system messages to be read back. A screen reader is designed to enable a blind person to use a computer fully.
Search engine
You can use a search engine to find webpages and websites on the internet. Search engines 'index' the content of websites and create huge databases that you can easily search to find the right website. The most commonly used search engine is Google.
Smart phone
A smart phone is an advanced mobile phone, that allows you to do more than just make phone calls and send text messages. A typical smart phone might let you browse the internet and download apps. The iPhone and the HTC are very well known examples of smart phones.
Social networking
Social networks is a term used for websites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. You use a social networking site to expand your social contacts by making connections with individuals and creating communities. It's also a fun way to keep in touch with friends and maybe to make some new acquantainces!
Software
Software is a general term for computer programs. It can mean anything you install or add to your technology that isn't hardware (physical stuff). Some examples of software are Adobe Reader, Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer and screen readers like JAWS or Supernova.
T, U, V
Tablet computer
A tablet is a computer contained in a panel which has a touch screen and is designed to be portable. There are various devices on the market such as the Apple iPad, Blackberry Playbook and Samsung Galaxy Tab.
Text-to-speech (TTS)
Text-to-speech is often used interchangeably with "screen reader" to refer to the vocalisation of information from a screen, but strictly speaking a TTS system reads nothing but text. While this can be a useful aid to partial sight, a blind user will need extra contextual information conferred through visual means (for instance that something is a button in a ribbon or dialogue) or formatting (such as a heading on a webpage).
Touch screen
A touch screen enables you to control the computer by touching an area of the screen. This might be on a PC, tablet device, mobile phone or electronic kiosk.
URL
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. Put more simply, this means a web address. The full URL (or web address) for RNIB's main website (that you're looking at now) is http://www.rnib.org.uk. You'll usually see web addresses written without the http:// bit at the start, so they just start with www.
USB (Universal Serial Bus)
A USB is usually a cable or little stick that you plug into your computer to transfer or store data (like files and folders). You might plug your iPod into your computer using a USB lead, to transfer music from your computer to the iPod.
Voice recognition software
Voice recognition software enables you to have an alternative to typing text into a computer. This is where the user talks to the computer and should not be confused with a screen reader where the computer talks to you.
W, X, Y, Z
Website
A website is a collection of related web pages that you can view via the internet, using a brower. Right now, you're looking at a web page on RNIB's website. RNIB's website contains hundreds of web pages, but some websites are very small, maybe only a page or two.
World Wide Web (www)
All publicly available websites together make up the World Wide Web.
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If there's a term you want explained that isn't here, you could:
Parts of this glossary have been extracted from
Windows 7 and Vista Explained by Dr. Sarah Morley Wilkins and Steve Griffiths.