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Web Design References

Web Design Glossary: B


Backward Compatible
Design that continues to work with earlier versions of a user agent, language, program, etc.
Baseline (in WCAG 2.0) is a set of technologies that a user agent (browser, media player, screen reader etc.) is assumed to support and have enabled. It may be set by the author or higher authority. When an author makes a WCAG 2.0 conformance claim, they must specify the baseline that they are using to make that claim. For more information consult About Baselines and WCAG 2.0.
Blindness includes a variety of conditions involving extreme (but not complete) or complete loss of vision.
Block Level Element
Block-level elements typically contain inline elements and other block-level elements. When rendered visually, they usually begin on a new line. Examples of block level elements include paragraphs, headings, divs, and blockquotes.
A discontinued website accessibility assessment tool designed to locate and identify certain accessibility problems within web pages, so that a web developer could repair those problems. It analyzed web pages and checked for those accessibility problems that can be checked for automatically. It was a good first pass for checking your web pages for accessibility.
Box Model
In Cascading Style Sheets, the box model refers to the rectangular boxes that are generated for elements in the document tree and laid out as specified in the visual formatting model. Every element generates a box, which is call the element box. As the word "box" implies, these are rectangular in shape Each box is made up of a number of parts. In the normal document flow, the element boxes of block-level elements cannot overlap each other (floats and positioning are the exceptions). In other words, the way a page is laid out depends on the size of each and every box. Going down the page, in broad terms, each box begins just below where the previous one ends. For more information consult Box Model.
A system of writing for individuals who have visual disabilities. The Braille system includes letters, numbers, and punctuation made up of raised dot patterns.
The software on a computer that allows websites to be rendered so they can be "read" by users. This maybe a browser that renders things visually, in a manner confined to text only, or in any other manner that may be appropriate, such as voice output.
Browser Style Sheet
This is the default style sheet within a browser. If a designer declares no style rules, the defaults from the browser are applied. Most browsers apply style sheets to all web documents. Although these style sheets vary from browser to browser, they all have common traits like black text, blue links, purple visited links etc. These are referred to as the "default" browser style sheet.