You are here: Help and Glossary > Glossary

In the site map below, click on the signs to expand a section, or to collapse it again:

Glossary

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

---

A

Age-related macular degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) is a very common cause of reduced vision in the UK. As the name suggests, it is a condition that tends to become more common as people get older. Although this condition may cause significant reduction in vision, it never leads to complete blindness as it affects only the central part of the vision and the side, or peripheral, vision is always left intact.

The retina, which is situated at the back of the eye, transmits the images that we see to the brain. The retina has two main parts – the macula and the peripheral retina. The macula is the part of the retina that is responsible for seeing fine detail, such as reading, seeing facial features and interpreting different colours. It is this part of the retina that is affected by age-related macular degeneration. For more information, please click here: http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/diseases/facts/sclerosisofretina.htm.

Aminoglycosides

Antibiotics are a group of drugs which treat bacterial infections, ranging from quite mild infections to serious, life-threatening diseases. The group of antibiotics that are most likely to cause hearing loss and sometimes tinnitus are aminoglycosides. These include Erythromycin, Gentamycin, Streptomycin and Neomycin. These antibiotics are often used to treat serious or life-threatening bacterial infections – for example, tuberculosis. They are sometimes prescribed when a bacterial infection does not improve with treatment using antibiotics that are not in the aminoglycosides group. However, it is worth noting that aminoglycosides are generally prescribed to treat serious, life-threatening diseases, where saving your life is felt to be more important than the possible risk of damaging your hearing.

For further information, please click here: http://www.rnid.org.uk/html/factsheets/med_drugs_and_hearing_loss.htm

Annual Report

The law states all registered charities must prepare an annual report. The annual report provides information about the charity, its trustees and officers, and the year’s activities, to give readers a more complete picture of the charity. An annual report will often include achievements during the year, names of trustees and officers, a description of the governing documents and purposes of the charity, and any other administrative information.

Auditory

Of or about hearing

B

Basic-rate tax

If you are an individual living in the UK and you have income, you may have to pay tax. Income tax is charged on income – from employment (including self-employment) and from property such as rental income, interest or dividends. Every person, however, can earn a certain amount of money each year before tax kicks in. The size of this personal allowance may vary according to your circumstances. After that, the UK tax system allows you to earn some money which is taxed at the lower rate (10%), then earn some money which is taxed at the basic rate (22%) and then earn some money which is taxed at the higher rate (40%). Around 16 million taxpayers in the UK pay tax at the basic rate as their top rate of tax.

Tax rates and allowances change each year. Please click here for more up-to-date information: http://www.taxaid.org.uk/help.cfm

Block alphabet

Some deafblind people with limited or no sight or hearing communicate using the ‘block alphabet’ method. This involves tracing out the alphabet in capital letters on the palms of their hands, or other part of the body, depending on what they prefer.

Braille

Braille is a tactile writing system used by visually impaired people. It was invented by Louis Braille of France who was blinded in a childhood accident. At the age of 15, he invented a code based on a military system for reading orders at night without showing any light.

Braille embosser

A Braille embosser is a printer, necessarily an impact printer, that renders text as Braille. Visually impaired users call other printers ‘ink printers’.

Brailler

Braille is often produced using a braille typewriter or brailler, or produced by a Braille embosser attached to a computer. It may also be rendered using a refreshable Braille display.

British Sign Language (BSL)

Deaf people in the UK use various methods of communication, but BSL is the most widely used method of signed communication. It uses both manual and non-manual components – handshapes and movements, facial expression, and shoulder movement. BSL is structured in a completely different way from English, and, like any language, it has its own grammar. For example, the question in English ‘What is your name?’ becomes the sequence ‘Your name what?’ in BSL. In March 2003, British Sign Language was recognised for the first time by the UK Government as an official language.

British Sign Language interpreter

A British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter facilitates communication between a deaf person who communicates using BSL and a hearing person using English. They work in a range of settings including the theatre, the workplace, and accompanying deaf people to doctor or dental appointments – in fact anywhere a deaf person and a hearing person need to communicate.

Browser

A computer program used to display Web pages and follow links between them. Widely-used graphical browsers include Internet Explorer, Netscape and Opera. These are accessible using screen-reader software. Alternatively, blind people often use a text-based browser such as Lynx, which can be used to drive a Braille output device.

C

CACDP

The Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People (CACDP) is a registered charity that has the aim of raising standards of communication between deaf and hearing people. They do this as a UK awarding body recognised by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) offering a wide range of nationally accredited qualifications.

Cataract

The word ‘cataract’ is used to describe any opacity or reduction in clarity of the lens of the eye. This can mean anything from mild cloudiness of the lens to becoming completely opaque. Most people over the age of 50 have some haziness over the lens and the situation only becomes significant if the lens opacity is interfering with vision. Cataract is the most common cause of blindness in the world today. It is, however, treatable with highly effective surgery, and cataract removal is the most common operation carried out in the UK today. For further information, please click here: http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/diseases/facts/cataract.htm.

CCTV

An increasing number of blind and partially sighted people have access to computers either in the workplace or at home, and closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) can be used to enlarge printed matter and display it on a computer screen (or television) at a size large enough for a visually impaired person to read.

Charities Act

The UK Charities Act was introduced in 1993 and became law in 1997. It requires charities to produce accounts in a true and complete way. This means that they should clearly show:

• all income and expenditure, with no netting off

• all assets that belong to the charity, including legacies, trusts and any funds over which it has control

• fund totals, which should be recorded as Unrestricted, Restricted or Endowment as applicable

• a Statement of Financial Activity (SOFA) – only some organisations will need to produce this.

Chronic illness

A disease or condition that lasts for a long period of time or is marked by frequent recurrence.

Cochlear implant

Cochlear implants can give profoundly deaf people a limited sensation of hearing. An external sound sensor and processor transmits electrical signals to the internal part, the implant itself, which is surgically fitted in the inner ear and sends the electrical signals to the auditory nerve. For more information, please see www.rnid.org.uk/html/factsheets/med_cochlear_implants.htm and www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/factsheets/test_procedure_operations/cochlear_implant/.

Communication impairment

A person with a communication impairment may find that other people have difficulty understanding them. Their speech may be indistinct, they may not be able to speak at all, they might find it difficult to say particular words or to put words together to form sentences, or they may have a stammer. Someone with a communication impairment may also have difficulties writing and reading text.

Communication support worker

A communication support worker (CSW) enables deaf students to get access to teaching in educational settings such as schools, colleges of further education and universities by providing a range of support. For example, they may provide communication support in BSL or lipspeaking, take notes or change course materials to suit the deaf student. CSWs are increasingly providing support to deaf people in work settings.

CSS

An acronym for Cascading Style Sheets, a system of style sheets that define how the different elements of a Web page should be displayed or printed. For example, this website uses alternative CSS files to display pages either in Standard or in Large print style.

Cybercafé

A cybercafé is an area where computers, internet access and other new technological equipment are available in a relaxed café environment to allow people a ‘hands on’ experience of using information technology (IT). The newly renovated cybercafé located at the Leeds Deaf Social Club was created, project-managed and is run by profoundly deaf people.

D

Deafblind communicator guide

Deafblind communicator guides provide a range of communication support to deafblind people, who have varying degrees of combined sight and hearing loss. They do this, for example, by using sign language, the Deafblind Manual Alphabet or other methods, depending on the communication needs of the deafblind person. Deafblind interpreters provide communication support in formal settings such as meetings and doctors’ appointments, and communicator guides provide support in informal settings such as when a deafblind person is socialising.

Decorating grants for blind people

Leeds Society for Deaf and Blind People offers grants for decorating the homes of blind people. The Society takes the view that blind people are unable to decorate their homes themselves and therefore individuals are able to apply for a one-off grant. To receive a grant the person must be retired or in receipt of benefits.

DLA

Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is a benefit for people who need help with mobility or personal care or both. DLA is tax-free and can be paid irrespective of income, wages or savings. You must be under 65 when you first make your claim but you can carry on getting DLA when you reach 65 and older. You do not have to have someone looking after you to qualify for DLA. It is the need for help that counts, not whether the help is actually being provided. No claimant has automatic entitlement to DLA. In order to receive the benefit you will have to meet certain conditions. For more information, please click here: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/lifeevent/benefits/disability_liv_allowance.asp.

E

Easyreader

The Easyreader is also called an Expert Reader and operates in a similar way to a stand-alone scanner. You place your material under the hood, and it then scans it and reads it back to you using synthesised speech.

Electronic notetaker see Notetakers

Estate

A legal term referring to all your possessions at the time of your death, including money and property.

F

Fast download

The Fast download button at the head of each page on this website takes you to a page on which you can view a selection of BSL videos introducing the site. Because the video panel is small, the videos load relatively quickly even on a dial-up connection. If you have a broadband connection you may prefer to use the High quality button instead.

Flyout menu

A flyout menu, or cascading menu, is a submenu that appears when an item on another menu is selected.

G

Gift Aid

Gift Aid was introduced by the Government in 1990 to encourage taxpayers to support charities in a tax-effective way. If you pay tax, UK charities can reclaim basic-rate tax on your gifts from the Inland Revenue. Under the current Gift Aid rules, you must:

• Pay at least as much tax in the tax year you reclaim the relief as the charities will reclaim on gifts made by you. The tax year runs from 6 April in one year to 5 April in the next. Both income and capital-gains tax count as tax paid by you.

• Make a declaration to the charity that you want your donation to be treated as a Gift Aid donation. Usually a charity will provide you with a written declaration form and will often fill in some or all of the details for you. All that you have to do is complete the form or any remaining details and return it to the charity. If the charity does not automatically give you a form, you should ask for one. You can make a declaration in writing (including by e-mail) or orally; in the latter case the charity should take your details and send you a written record.

• Not receive excessive benefits in return for your gift. If you do receive any benefits you should double-check whether your donation can still be made within the Gift Aid scheme.

Advantages of Gift Aid are that you can make a donation in cash or by cheque, postal order, direct debit, standing order, debit or credit card. You can give any amount, regular or one-off, large or small, and the recipient charity can reclaim the tax. If you are a higher-rate taxpayer, you can reclaim relief on the difference between the basic rate and higher rate of tax on the gross donation.

Glaucoma

Glaucoma is the name given to a group of conditions in which the optic nerve is damaged where it leaves the eye. This nerve carries the information about what is being seen from the eye to the brain. The eye needs a certain amount of internal pressure in order to work. In glaucoma, the pressure within the eye is too high for the optic nerve and it is damaged, leading to a characteristic loss of the visual field. This damage starts in the off-centre parts of the vision, and if untreated, progresses to tunnel vision and eventually blindness. The loss of vision in glaucoma is permanent, but with early treatment the damage to vision can be minimised. For further information, please click here: http://www.iga.org.uk.

‘Glue ear’

The eustachian tube in the ear usually keeps the middle ear full of air. If this tube becomes blocked, air cannot enter the middle ear. When this happens, the cells lining the middle ear begin to produce fluid. The fluid makes it harder for sound to pass through to the inner ear. It can be like listening to the world with both fingers stuck in your ears. Glue ear is temporary and can come and go. For further information, please click here: http://www.ndcs.org.uk/information/childhood_deafness/glue_ear/.

GP

A General Practitioner (GP) is a doctor who provides personal, primary and continuing care to individuals and families. He or she may attend their patients in their homes, in the doctor’s consulting room, or sometimes in hospital.

H

Hearing therapist

A hearing therapist’s role is to provide a comprehensive rehabilitation service for adults who have hearing difficulties and/or associated disorders. They use a variety of different methods to work out an individual programme for each patient to assist them in improving their communication skills and to maintain work and social contacts. These include help with hearing aids, auditory training, counselling individuals with hearing impairments (and their families), advice about environmental aids, lip-reading instruction and tinnitus management.

High quality

The High quality button at the head of each page on this website takes you to a page on which you can view a selection of BSL videos introducing the site. The video panel is larger than on the Fast download page, so this option works best on a broadband connection. If you have a dial-up connection you may prefer to use the Fast download button instead.

Higher-rate tax

If you are an individual living in the UK and you have income, you may have to pay tax. Income tax is charged on income – from employment (including self-employment) and from property such as rental income, interest or dividends. Every person, however, can earn a certain amount of money each year before tax kicks in. The size of this personal allowance may vary according to your circumstances. After that, the UK tax system allows you to earn some money which is taxed at the lower rate (10%), then earn some money which is taxed at the basic rate (22%) and then earn some money which is taxed at the higher rate (40%). Around 16 million taxpayers in the UK pay tax at the basic rate as their top rate of tax.

Tax rates and allowances change each year. Please click here for more up-to-date information: http://www.taxaid.org.uk/help.cfm.

Home

The home page of a website is the main page. It normally appears first and acts as a title page, and may have a main menu or table of contents for the site.

HTML

An acronym for HyperText Markup Language: the language in which most Web pages are written, based on a system of tags and attributes.

Human Aids to Communication

Human Aids to Communication (HACs) are people who facilitate the communication between deaf and hearing people. They can assist in wide variety of situation and are usually qualified and registered with the Council for the Advancement of Communication for Deaf People (CACDP). They are in the following categories: BSL/English Interpreter, Communication Support Worker, Deafblind Communicator Guide, Electronic Notetaker, Lipspeaker, Notetaker, Speech-to-text Reporter.

I

Induction loop system

An induction loop system helps deaf people who use a hearing aid or loop listener to hear sounds more clearly by reducing or cutting out background noise. At home, for example, you could use a loop to pick up sound from your television, hi-fi or radio. A loop can also be set up with a microphone to help hearing-aid users hear conversations in noisy places. In the theatre, a loop can help you hear the show more clearly.

Investment trust

A company quoted on the London Stock Exchange which invests its shareholders’ funds in the shares of other companies with the aim of producing a return for its shareholders.

J

K

L

Large-screen software see Screen-magnification software

Learning disabilities/difficulties

People with learning disabilities find it harder to learn, but they can do so with help from other people. They usually have a learning disability from birth or sometimes from early childhood. People with learning disabilities are not all the same, they have different needs, come from all kinds of families and have varied lives. Some people have severe learning disabilities and will need a lot of day-to-day support, whereas some people with mild or moderate learning disabilities can live with much less help from other people. Some people prefer to say learning difficulties instead of learning disabilities.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the largest trusts in the UK. It provides acute health services for the population of Leeds and is a regional centre for the treatment of diseases such as cancer and heart disease. It employs about 15,000 staff across eight sites and treats 125,000 inpatients, 65,000 day cases and 700,000 outpatients each year. The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is made up of the following sites: Chapel Allerton Hospital, Cookridge Hospital, Leeds Chest Clinic, Leeds Dental Institute, Leeds General Infirmary, Seacroft Hospital, St James’s University Hospital and Wharfedale Hospital.

Links

Links, or hyperlinks, take you from place to place on the Web. When you click on them, or follow them, they can take you to another part of the same webpage, to another page within the same site, or to another site altogether. Pictures or text can act as links. See help for further details.

Lipspeakers

A lipspeaker repeats clearly and accurately what a hearing person or speaker says, without using their voice. This makes it easier for deaf people who communicate by lipreading to follow what other people are saying. Lipspeakers are needed in many situations and work in a variety of settings; for example: wherever the speaker is difficult to lipread, if there is more than one speaker, if the deaf person cannot easily see the speaker, or where the lighting is bad.

Listed shares

The authorised share capital of a company is divided into a number of equal parts. Each part is called a share. Listed shares belong to a company that is ‘listed’, in other words whose securities have been admitted to the United Kingdom Listing Authority’s Official List and which have been allowed to trade on the London Stock Exchange.

Lower-rate tax

If you are an individual living in the UK and you have income, you may have to pay tax. Income tax is charged on income – from employment (including self-employment) and from property such as rental income, interest or dividends. Every person, however, can earn a certain amount of money each year before tax kicks in. The size of this personal allowance may vary according to your circumstances. After that, the UK tax system allows you to earn some money which is taxed at the lower rate (10%), then earn some money which is taxed at the basic rate (22%) and then earn some money which is taxed at the higher rate (40%). Around 16 million taxpayers in the UK pay tax at the basic rate as their top rate of tax.

Tax rates and allowances change each year. Please click here for more up-to-date information: http://www.taxaid.org.uk/help.cfm.

Low vision

Low vision is defined as vision that cannot be further improved by corrective lenses or medical or surgical intervention, although low-vision rehabilitation may help someone to use his/her remaining sight more effectively.

In other words, people with low vision are those who – even after medical treatment – have great difficulty distinguishing objects and/or distances, but have the potential to do so with the aid of environmental changes or specifically manufactured devices.

LSLIS

Acronym for Leeds Sign Language Interpreting Service. Please click here for further information.

M

Manual alphabet

This method for communicating with deafblind people uses the slightly modified finger-spelling alphabet where the letters are spelled out by positioning the fingers on the receiver’s hand. Both people using this method will need to be able to spell confidently.

Maximise windows see Windows

Memorandum and Articles of Association

A registered charity needs governing documents. These are formal documents created to set up the charity; they should include the following information: what the charity is set up to do (objects); how the charity will do those things (powers); who will run it (charity trustees); what happens if changes to the administrative provisions need to be made (amendment provision); and what happens if the charity wishes to wind up (dissolution provision).

These governing documents are obviously important. They are not just something that a charity has to have in order to be a registered charity; it is the charity trustees’ ‘instruction manual’ for the charity, as well as a legal document.

Often charities have a trading arm which is registered as a company limited by guarantee. To do this, you need to draw up a Memorandum and Articles of Association which give details of the company, its activities and how it will operate as a legal entity.

Ménière’s disease

Ménière’s disease is a disorder of the hearing and balancing mechanisms in the inner ear. These mechanisms are contained in a structure known as the labyrinth. This is a hollow membranous organ consisting of the cochlea, which is concerned with hearing, and the vestibule and semicircular canals, which are concerned with balance. All three parts are interconnected and are filled with a fluid known as the endolymph.

Ménière’s disease can occur at any age, but is most common between the ages of 40 and 60. Usually only one ear is affected, but in about one case in four the second ear becomes involved later. Ménière’s is a distressing disorder, as attacks are recurrent and often severe. Attacks last for several hours or for as long as a day.

Meningitis

The meninges are the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system). They act as a barrier between the central nervous system and the rest of the body, acting as an extra barrier to infection.

Meningitis is infection of the meninges. It can be caused by bacteria or viruses. There are approximately 3500–4000 reported cases per year in the UK. Bacterial meningitis is a less common form of the disease. It is always serious and severe. Viral meningitis is more common but normally less serious.

Bacterial meningitis is caused by several different types of germs, which live naturally at the back of the nose and throat in one in ten people and can be spread by close prolonged contact, coughing, sneezing and kissing. Only in some do the germs overwhelm the body’s defences and cause meningitis. The bacteria cannot live long outside the body, so cannot be picked up from water supplies, swimming pools, buildings or factories, and only certain types of bacteria (meningococcal C) spread more rapidly in crowded areas. Incubation for bacterial meningitis is between 2 and 10 days.

Viral meningitis is a less severe illness but can still be very debilitating; very rarely it can progress through headache, fever and drowsiness to deep coma. The incubation period for viral meningitis can be up to 3 weeks.

For further information, please click here: http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/resourceindex.asp

Metropolitan area of Leeds

The area where residents pay their Council Tax to Leeds City Council.

Minicom

Also known as textphone. Some deaf or deafblind people find that textphones are a great help to communication. A textphone is simply a telephone with a keyboard attached; messages appear as text in a display. The conversation is typed, rather than spoken.

Mumps

Mumps is a viral infection of the parotid salivary glands. These glands are located just below and in front of the ears. They produce saliva, which drains into the mouth and helps to break up and digest food.

Mumps is caused by a contagious virus, which is transmitted through airborne droplets from the coughs and sneezes of infected people. It takes around 16–21 days from coming into contact with an infected person before symptoms develop. Mumps is normally a mild illness, although in a minority of cases there can be severe complications, such as deafness and meningitis. This is why children are vaccinated against mumps.

N

NHS

National Health Service

Notetakers (electronic notetaking)

If a deaf person is watching a sign-language interpreter or lipspeaker, it is impossible for them to take notes at the same time. Notetakers can help by taking accurate and clear notes for deaf people in these situations, either in handwritten English or on a laptop computer. Notetakers work mainly in further and higher education, though more recently they have started working in the workplace and in other situations.

O

Ophthalmologist

A doctor who treats eye diseases

Otosclerosis

Abnormal growth of bone of the inner ear. This bone prevents structures within the ear from working properly and causes hearing loss. For some people with otosclerosis, the hearing loss may become severe.

P

Payroll Giving (or Give As You Earn)

Payroll Giving is a flexible scheme that enables employees to make charitable donations straight from their gross salary. This means that they receive immediate tax relief on the value of their donation. Therefore, for a basic-rate taxpayer wanting to give a £10 donation, it will only cost £7.80, or just £6 for higher-rate taxpayers. Payroll Giving can apply to regular or one-off donations.

PDF

PDF stands for Portable Document Format. Devised by Adobe, it is a reliable format for electronic document exchange that preserves the layout and appearance of documents so they can be viewed and printed on a variety of computer platforms (Windows, Mac, etc).

Peripatetic service

A service which travels around to different places and service users, often used in the case of sensory-impaired people because they have mobility problems and find it difficult to access a service which is located in one place.

Perkins Brailler

A Perkins Brailler is the name of a type of Brailler. It is a manual one that is used like a typewriter.

Presbyacusis

Losing your hearing as you grow older – the commonest type of deafness

Primary Care Trust (PCT)

These are free-standing bodies with responsibility for delivering better health care and health improvements to their local area. A PCT is an NHS trust that provides all local GP, community and primary care services and commissions hospital services from other NHS trusts. They are managed by a Board elected from local GPs, community nurses, lay members, the Health Authority and Social Services. They have their own budgets, and commission services or directly provide a range of community health services as well as setting priorities. They have taken over many of the responsibilities of Health Authorities.

Projected incidence

The incidence or rate at which something is predicted to happen in the future, based on past and present figures.

Public Dispensary

The Leeds Public Dispensary was established in 1824 to provide free medical assistance to the needy. The dispensary building is now Centenary House and is the registered office for Leeds Society for Deaf and Blind People. The dispensary was built in Portland stone and was opened on 12 May 1904 by Dr Clifford Allbutt. It closed as a dispensary in 1971 when the work was transferred to St James Hospital.

Q

R

Rehabilitation officer

Trained person who helps blind people become more independent.

Rehabilitation training

It is generally accepted that the process of rehabilitation training includes these three key areas:

• Reducing a person’s impairment, disability or handicap

• Acquiring new skills and strategies or re-learning those lost, through which the impact of the impairment, disability or handicap can be minimised

• Altering or shaping the environment so that impairment or disability no longer results in handicap.

RNIB

The Royal National Institute for the Blind is a UK charity offering information, support and advice to all people with sight problems. They fight for equal rights for people with sight problems, and they fund research into preventing and treating eye disease. For further information click here: http://www.rnib.org.uk/.

RNID

The Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) is a national charity representing deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the UK. They aim to achieve a better quality of life for deaf and hard-of-hearing people through campaigning, funding research, and providing information, products and services. For further information click here: http://www.rnid.org.uk/.

Rubella (German measles)

Rubella, or German measles, is a mild infectious disease with an incubation period of 14–21 days. Patients can infect other people from one week before the onset of the rash until four days afterwards. Maternal rubella infection in the first eight to ten weeks of pregnancy results in foetal damage in up to 90% of infants: it can cause the baby to be born deaf and blind and may also damage the child’s heart, brain and other organs. Multiple defects are common, and are collectively known as Congenital Rubella Syndrome. A vaccine against rubella exists.

S

Screen factors

Screen factors are a way of describing the degree of screen magnification. For example, factor one would mean that each letter is magnified to twice the size on the screen, and so on up to about factor four or five. Factor five is extremely large.

Screen-magnification software

Screen-magnification software, or large-screen software, magnifies the size of the text and anything else on a computer screen. It can be set to various screen sizes. Examples include MAGic (Freedom Scientific), Lunar and Supernova (Dolphin) and ZoomText (Ai Squared).

Screen-reader programs

These programs use synthesised speech to read the screen, and are usually used by totally blind people or visually impaired people with very poor vision. As well as ordinary text, they can read other items such as menus and dialog boxes. Examples include JAWS (Freedom Scientific), Hal and Supernova (Dolphin) and ZoomText (Ai Squared).

Screen resolution

The number of pixels (tiny dots) on the computer screen. 640 × 480 (i.e. 640 pixels wide by 480 pixels high) would be considered a low screen resolution. It is usually best to set the screen resolution to as high a setting as possible.

Sensory-impaired people

People who are hearing-impaired or visually impaired, or both hearing- and visually impaired.

Service Level Agreements

The Service Level Agreements (SLAs) define the level of service provision expected for the metropolitan district of Leeds, as provided by the partnership between Leeds City Council and Leeds Society for Deaf and Blind People. These are produced annually; each SLA describes an aspect of service provision and details the level of acceptable service offered to residents of Leeds for that aspect.

Sign-supported English

This is a manual support system incorporating signs taken from BSL together with fingerspelling. It is used in English word-order to supplement spoken words, but does not attempt to present every element of the spoken utterance. Its aim is to clarify the spoken message and lessen ambiguity.

SMS

SMS means Short Messaging Service, which is a text message service offered by most mobile-telephone providers. Using SMS, a short alphanumeric message (usually up to a maximum of 160 alphanumeric characters) can be sent to a mobile phone to be displayed there, much as in an alphanumeric pager system. This means of communication is particularly useful for people with a hearing impairment.

Social Centres for Blind People

These are afternoon social centres for visually impaired people based in Otley, Horsforth, Morley, Kippax and Wetherby. They meet once a week on different afternoons, are run by volunteers, and provide a chance to meet new friends and discuss each other’s experiences over some light refreshment. They also provide other social activities such as day trips. For further information, please call telephone number 0113 243 8328 (voice and minicom).

Speech and vision enhancement packages

This simply refers to screen-reader programs or screen-magnification programs, or to software that combines the two functions such as Supernova (Dolphin) and ZoomText (Ai Squared).

Speech-to-text reporter

A speech-to-text reporter, also called a palantypist or stenographer, types word-for-word everything that is said, which can then be instantly viewed on a screen by a deaf person. Speech-to-text reporters work in a range of situations. A speech-to-text reporter uses a special keyboard that allows words to be typed phonetically. These are then converted by special software into English for viewing on screen.

Streaming

A method used for accessing large multimedia files, such as video files, over the Internet. The data is sent as a steady stream to the web browser; once enough of the data has been downloaded to fill a buffer, the file begins to be displayed. This avoids the need to wait until all the data has been downloaded before starting to display it.

T

Trustees or Management Committee members

The definition of Charity Trustees in the Charities Act 1960 is widely drawn to encompass all ‘the persons having the general control and management of the administration of a charity’. This is interpreted as including all the members of the charity’s governing body and thus does not include executive staff, patrons, presidents, vice-presidents or advisers.

Type size

The size of the type or text used in a web page or other document, often measured in points (there are 72 points to the inch).

The type size of headings, normal text and other items on web pages is often specified in a CSS style sheet. Most browsers allow you to change the type size, provided that it has not been specified in absolute terms. In Internet Explorer, for example, you can go to the View menu, select Text size, and choose from the five sizes displayed in the submenu.

In this website, a convenient way of increasing the type size and contrast of the pages is to click on the Large print button in the heading of each page.

Typetalk

RNID Typetalk is a national telephone relay service which provides a link between a textphone user and a hearing person. The link is a highly trained RNID Typetalk Operator who understands the needs of deaf and speech-impaired people and provides a discreet and confidential service.

U

Unit trusts

Unit trusts are collective funds which allow private investors to pool their money in a single fund, thus spreading their risk, getting the benefit of professional fund management, and reducing their dealing costs.

Upgrade to the latest version

Problems with viewing documents can often be solved by upgrading to the latest version of the corresponding application. In the case of web pages, you should upgrade your browser. This can often be done by visiting the website of the company that develops the application and downloading the upgrade, having paid a fee if necessary.

V

Voluntary society or charity

The ‘general charities’ definition applied by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) sets out the criteria that voluntary organisations should meet. These are:

• Formality – the people and their activities are subject to rules and procedures, and there is a recognisable structure in place.

• Independence – organisations operate independently of the statutory and private sectors.

• Non-profit distribution – organisations direct the proceeds generated from the activities they undertake back into achieving the organisation’s charitable objectives and helping the public.

• Self-governing – they determine their own course of action.

• Voluntarism – there is a meaningful degree of voluntary giving of time and/or money.

• Public benefit – organisations exist for the benefit of the wider public or specific groups within a wider society, but not solely for the benefit of their own members.

The definition of a charity is ‘an organisation independent of government or business that is non-profit making or distributing and provides a wider public benefit to the community.’ The term ‘charity’ has had negative connotations in the past because of the association with deference, which is why the term ‘voluntary’ sector or ‘voluntary and community’ sector tends to be preferred. When referring to the voluntary sector as a whole, the terms charities, non-governmental organisations, not-for-profit organisations and the third sector are often used interchangeably. Please click here for further information: http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/.

W

Windows

The rectangular boxes or panels on the computer screen within which programs and documents are displayed.

For use with screen-reader programs, your browser window or windows should always be maximised. To maximise the window, press Alt+spacebar to access its control menu, then cursor down until you get to ‘Maximise’. Sighted users can click on the Maximise button near the top right corner of the window.

X

Y

Z