Important Information about Techniques
See Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria for important information about the usage of these informative techniques and how they relate to the normative WCAG 2.0 success criteria. The Applicability section explains the scope of the technique, and the presence of techniques for a specific technology does not imply that the technology can be used in all situations to create content that meets WCAG 2.0.
The objective of this technique is to provide a definition for any word used in an unusual or restricted way.
A word is used in an unusual or restricted way when:
dictionaries give several definitions of the word but one specific definition must be used in order to understand the content;
a specific definition must be used in order to understand the content and dictionaries list that definition as rare, archaic, obsolete, etc.;
the author creates a new definition that must be used in order to understand the content.
This technique can also be used to provide definitions for jargon, that is, the specialized vocabulary used in a particular profession or technical field and understood by people in that field but not by people outside the field.
The technique can also be used to define idiomatic expressions. For example, speakers of a language who live in a particular region may use idiomatic expressions that are accepted by everyone in the region but not by people from other regions where the same language is spoken.
The word "technology" is widely used to cover everything from the stone tools used by early humans to contemporary digital devices such as cell phones. But in WCAG 2.0, the word technology is used in a more restricted way: it means a mechanism for encoding instructions to be rendered, played or executed by user agents, including markup languages, data formats, and programming languages used in producing and delivering Web content.
Some people say "spill the beans" when they mean "reveal a secret", e.g., "In the police station, Joe spilled the beans about the plot to kidnap the prime minister."
In Japanese, Kata-kana is used for adopted foreign words. If words are unfamiliar to users, provide the meaning or translation so that users can understand them.
アクセシビリティ(高齢者・障害者を含む全ての人が利用できること)は、Webサイトに不可欠である。
English translation: "Accessibility" [it can be accessed by all users including elderly people and people with disabilities] is an essential aspect of the Websites.
レイアウトテーブルとCSSの併用をハイブリッド(複合型)という。
English translation: Using both layout table and CSS is called "hybrid" [combination of multiple forms].
No resources available for this technique.
Procedure
For each word or phrase used in an unusual or restricted way:
Check that a definition is provided for the word or phrase
Expected Results
Check #1 is true.
If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.
cognate
adjective
linguistics cognate words or languages have the same origin
contextual
adjective
connected with a particular context
disyllabic
adjective
disyllabic words have two syllables
figurative
adjective
linguistics if you use words in a figurative way, you use them not in their normal literal meaning but in a way that makes a description more interesting or impressive
figuratively
adverb
using words not in their normal literal meaning but in a way that makes a description more interesting or impressive
literally
adverb
in the most basic, obvious meanings of the words that are used
monosyllabic
adjective
linguistics a monosyllabic word has only one syllable
native
adjective
your native language or native tongue is the first language that you learn, usually in the country where you were born
old
adjective
used with the names of languages to refer to the form of the language that was used in the past
phatic
adjective
used for describing words or phrases that you use for social reasons, for example in order to be friendly, rather than in order to give information
pidgin
adjective
used for describing speech or language in which a foreign language is mixed with the speaker’s first language
polysemous
adjective
a polysemous word has more than one meaning
proverbial
adjective
used when you are describing something with an expression from a proverb
sesquipedalian
adjective
very formal used to describe a very long word with many syllables
syncretic
adjective
linguistics combining two or more inflections that were originally separate
synonymous
adjective
linguistics if two words are synonymous, they have the same meaning or almost the same meaning
unmarked
adjective
linguistics an unmarked word or phrase is generally used in normal English rather than being, for example, formal or informal