Jargon explained
- CSS
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Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in (X)HTML.
Using CSS it is possible for a website to have many different themes. It also enables us to target different viewing devices with a specific CSS layout. We can build a CSS layout for all mobile phone devices while having a more detailed layout for the main browsers found on PCs’.
- JavaScript
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JavaScript is a scripting language most often used for client-side web development. This means the device been used to view a website must have JavaScript enabled for any JavaScript to work.
The most common use of JavaScript on websites is for graphic rollovers and form validation.
Correct use of JavaScript entails building a site which functions even if JavaScript is not enabled on the clients viewing device.
- MySQL
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MySQL is a relational database management system (RDBMS). The program runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases.
A database behind the scenes helps us to build a dynamic website. It can be used to hold login details of our customers, content for the site, products that we sell and many more.
- National Disability Authority IT Accessibility Guidelines
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The National Disability Authority (NDA) developed the AccessIT guidelines to provide comprehensive direction on making electronically delivered services accessible to people with disabilities.
This initiative arises from the Irish Government's commitment in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (Page 100, Para 19) to making public services accessible to people with disabilities and also from the obligations on public bodies in the Disability Act 2005 Section 28 (2) regarding electronic communications.
- PHP
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PHP is a widely used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into (X)HTML. It generally runs on a web server, taking PHP code as its input and creating web pages as output.
It can be deployed on most web servers and on almost every operating system and platform free of charge. PHP is installed on more than 20 million websites and 1 million web servers.
PHP enables us to have a dynamic website where the users can interact with the site in some way. Uploading CVs’, setting options, sending feedback and updating content are a just a few examples.
- Standards Compliant
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Standards-Compliant is a term often used in describing websites & user agents' (often web browsers) relative compliance with web standards proposed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C); also used for stressing out that one doesn't use proprietary methods or features.
The success of the Internet was in some ways made possible by the ease with which people could build websites. This success is now a huge problem with millions of poorly coded sites making it very difficult for user agents to view them all correctly.
Working to web standards helps to ensure a site can display on all devices and as such reach a maximum audience. It also helps in building a site, which is very cost effective and easy to maintain. It helps to make the site future proof, goes some distance in making the site search engine friendly and can help display a page faster.
- U.S. Federal Government Section 508 Guidelines
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Section 508 requires that Federal agencies' electronic and information technology is accessible to people with disabilities. IT Accessibility & Workforce Division, in the U.S. General Services Administration's Office of Governmentwide Policy, has been charged with the task of educating Federal employees and building the infrastructure necessary to support Section 508 implementation.
- Web Accessibility
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Web Accessibility refers to the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users can have equal access to information and functionality.
For example, when a site is coded with semantically meaningful (X)HTML, with textual equivalents provided for images and with links named meaningfully, this helps blind users using text-to-speech software and/or text-to-Braille hardware.
- W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
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The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) works with organizations around the world to develop strategies, guidelines, and resources to help make the Web accessible to people with disabilities.
- (X)HTML
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HTML is the very flexible mark-up language which is used to structure a website. It is the code behind the scenes, which most people never see. However, because it is so flexible, it has resulted in bloated, badly coded websites, which do not display correctly on multiple devices and require heavy applications like Internet Explorer to make sense of the code and display the pages as intended.
(X)HTML Extensible Hypertext Mark-up Language is a strict form of HTML. The result: lean, well-structured websites whose content can display on many different devices.
