| a11y, A11Y | Accessibility abbreviation (the numeral “11” represents the 11 letters between the “a” and “y” in “accessibility”); the term is preferred with lowercase letters |
| accessible (as it relates to digital products) | An adjective that describes websites, applications and other digital experiences that are usable by people with disabilities according to accessibility guidelines, such as WCAG or EN 301 549, or regulatory conformance such as CVAA and EAA — accessible products are not necessarily inclusive products (see “inclusive”) |
| active payment testing | Real-world payment testing with testers conducting real transactions, using their own payment instruments |
| agentic AI | Agentic AI refers to autonomous systems designed to perform tasks on behalf of a user or another system; these agents are capable of making decisions and taking actions independently, often by leveraging technologies such as large language models (LLMs), natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) |
| AI fine-tuning | AI content creation using experts and generalists; includes data collection and specialized datasets |
| artificial intelligence (AI) | The abbreviation for artificial intelligence — an advanced form of technology that simulates human intelligence, learns, recognizes patterns, solves problems and interprets language based on vast amounts of data; AI encompasses agentic AI, generative AI and machine learning |
| ASL | American Sign Language |
| assistive device / assistive technology / adaptive technology / access technologies | A tool or piece of equipment that helps people with disabilities perform daily tasks and activities — web browser/screen reader combinations (e.g., JAWS/Chrome, NVDA/Firefox, VoiceOver/Safari, VoiceOver/iOS, Talkback/Android); the default screen reader for native mobile iOS and for native mobile Android (VoiceOver/iOS, Talkback/Android); color contrast, magnification software, and more |
| Contract Period | The duration of time identified in the SOW tied to testing services |
| customer journey | The full series of interactions a customer has with a business, from the first awareness of the brand to after a purchase is made |
| CVAA | Communications and Video Accessibility Act |
| data poisoning | An AI attack that injects malicious data that compromises training or model performance |
| EAA | European Accessibility Act |
| generative AI (Gen AI) | A form of AI that draws on deep learning models, extensive training data and natural language understanding to create something in response to a user request, such as text, image, software code, audio or video |
| LLM | The abbreviation for large-language model — the foundation for AI systems |
| locale | The location/language combination under test (e.g., separate cities with different dominant languages/dialects may be considered separate locales, even if they are in the same country) |
| longitudinal/diary study | Feedback will be collected through an unmoderated, qualitative survey |
| manual functional testing | Functional software testing conducted manually by humans |
| model extraction | An AI attack that attempts to steal or replicate the AI model |
| OWASP | Open Web Application Security Project |
| passive payment testing | With testers’ full, encrypted PII details provided by Applause, the Client’s internal engineering/dev team conducts payment tests on behalf of testers |
| payment transaction test | One tester on one platform (e.g., web, iOS native app, Android native app), in one country, attempting to perform some form of money/currency movement |
| PCI DSS | Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard compliance is a set of requirements that ensure businesses that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment, helping reduce attacks on credit card data |
| PI | Payment instrument (e.g., credit cards, debit cards, EFT etc.) |
| PII | Personally identifiable information; includes details like credit card number, CVV, expiration, address, birthday, etc. |
| PWD | People with disabilities, which can be permanent, temporary or degenerative; includes visual, hearing, mobility or cognitive disabilities |
| red team testing (or red teaming) | Adversarial testing to identify AI model risks, whereby teams of experts and generalists actively test models to uncover bias, toxicity and hallucinations before they reach users |
| RLHF | Reinforcement learning from human feedback, a method used to train and evaluate AI |
| SDET | Software Development Engineer in Test; SDETs are IT professionals who combine their knowledge of software development and testing to create automated test frameworks, design test cases and write code to improve software testability |
| SDLC | Software development lifecycle |
| SOW | Statement of work |
| split payment testing | With testers’ full, encrypted PII details provided by Applause, the Client’s internal engineering/dev team conducts payment tests with the involvement of the testers, so the PI owner can provide an additional layer of authentication to complete the test (e.g., fraud alerts, multifactor authentication) |
| structured functional testing | Functionality is tested according to a detailed sequence of events on a regular or ad-hoc basis; provides reassurance that key digital paths work as intended, and that existing code will not break when new code is added |
| test case | A structured plan to validate a particular functionality of a software application; as part of structured testing, a test case will either “pass” or “fail” depending on if it performs as intended as testers follow a detailed sequence of events |
| user flows | A sequence of actions in a web or mobile application (e.g., login, add to cart or create an account); multiple actions may be combined into a single key user flow |
| VPAT | Voluntary Product Accessibility Template |
| WCAG | Web Content Accessibility Guidelines |
| white box manual penetration testing | A software testing method where the tester has complete knowledge of the application’s inner workings |
| W3C | World Wide Web Consortium |
