S.L. 418.3 Art. 2Interpretation. Cap. 418. Cap. 490.

For the purposes of these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires:

''accessibility'' means principles and techniques to be observed when designing, constructing, maintaining, and updating websites and mobile applications in order to make them more accessible to users, in particular, but in no way limited, to persons with disabilities;

''Act'' means the Malta Communications Authority Act and includes any regulations made thereunder unless the context otherwise requires;

''Authority'' means the Malta Communications Authority established under the Act;

''bodies governed by public law'' means bodies that have all of the following characteristics:

(a) they are established for the specific purpose of meeting needs in the general interest, not having an industrial or commercial character;

(b) they have legal personality; and

(c) they are financed, for the most part, by the State, regional or local authorities or by other bodies governed by public law; or are subject to management supervision by those authorities or bodies; or have an administrative, managerial or supervisory board, more than half of whose members are appointed by the State, regional or local authorities, or by other bodies governed by public law;

''content of websites and mobile applications'' shall include textual as well as non-textual information, downloadable documents and forms, and two-way interaction such as the processing of digital forms and the completion of authentication, identification and payment processes;

''items in heritage collections'' means privately or publicly owned goods presenting a historical, artistic, archaeological, aesthetic, scientific or technical interest and that are part of collections preserved by cultural institutions such as libraries, archives and museums;

''measurement data'' means the quantified results of the monitoring activity carried out in order to verify the compliance of the websites and mobile applications of public sector bodies with the accessibility requirements set out in regulation 4. It covers both quantitative information about the sample of websites and mobile applications tested, such as the number of websites and applications with, potentially, the number of visitors or users; and quantitative information about the level of accessibility;

''mobile application'' means application software designed and developed, by or on behalf of public sector bodies, for use by the general public on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. It does not include the software that controls those devices or hardware;

''non-governmental organisation'' means a voluntary self-governing body established to pursue essentially non-profit making objectives;

''office file formats'' means documents that are not intended primarily for use on the web and that are included in web pages, such as Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), Microsoft Office documents or their (open source) equivalents;

''public sector body'' means the State, regional or local authorities, bodies governed by public law, or associations formed by one or more such authorities or one or more such bodies governed by public law, if those associations are established for the specific purpose of meeting needs in the general interest, not having an industrial or commercial character;

''stakeholders'' shall include persons with disabilities, organisations representing the interests of persons with disabilities and of the elderly, social partners, industry involved in the creation of accessibility software relating to websites and mobile applications, and civil society;

''standard'' means a technical specification, adopted by a recognised standardisation body, for repeated or continuous application, with which compliance is not compulsory, and which is one of the following:

(a) ''international standard'' means a standard adopted by an international standardisation body;

(b) ''European standard'' means a standard adopted by a European standardisation organisation;

(c) ''harmonised standard'' means a European standard adopted on the basis of a request made by the European Commission for the application of European Union harmonisation legislation;

''time-based media'' means media of the following types: audio-only, video-only, audio-video, audio and/or video combined with interaction; and

''Tribunal'' means the Administrative Review Tribunal established by article 5 of the Administrative Justice Act.