Appendix 4: Key Terminology
Appendix 4
Key Terminology
Accessible
With respect to buildings, or parts of buildings, means that people, regardless of age, size, ability or disability, are able to both access and use the building and its facilities.
Acoustics
Characteristics relating to sound.
School-age childcare
A centre-based service for school going children aged 4-15 years, which operates during one or more of the following periods: before school, after school, during school holidays.
Aistear
The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework.
Assistive technologies
Technological devices (equipment or systems) that are used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals.
Building
A permanent or temporary structure of any size that accommodates facilities to which people have access. A building accommodating sanitary facilities may include a toilet block in a public park or shower facilities at a campsite. A temporary building may include portable toilet facilities such as those provided at outdoor events.
Campus
A site or grounds with a collection of mostly detached buildings which share a common purpose.
Camphered
A carpentry term that refers to the edging on furniture.
CAT6
A data communication cable standard for Gigabit Ethernet cable.
Closed Circuit TV (CCTV)
A TV system in which signals are not publicly distributed but are monitored, primarily for surveillance and security purposes.
Circulation
External or internal spaces to allow a person to move from one place to another (i.e. external pathways or internal corridors).
Clear width
The width between handrails.
Cognitive impairment
A cognitive decline greater than that expected for a person’s age and education level.
Decibels
Decibels (dBs) are the units used to measure sound intensity.
Designated car parking
Car parking spaces reserved for the use of car users with disabilities, whether as motorists or passengers.
Door ironmongery
A collective term for components including hinges, handles, locks and self- closing devices, which are used to facilitate the correct functioning of a door. May also be termed ‘architectural ironmongery’ or ‘door furniture’.
Dropped kerbs
A lowered section of kerb between a pavement and carriageway forming a level or flush crossing point. Also referred to as dished kerbs.
Early Learning and Care setting (ELC)
An ELC is a setting providing Early Learning and Care to children primarily aged from birth to six years. This may include sessional settings (where children attend for up to 3.5 hours), part-time settings (where children attend for up to 5 hours) or full-day settings (where children attend for over 5 hours). These settings may also provide afterschool facilities that may cater to primary children up to the age of 14 years.
An ELC can take many forms in various locations such as: a standalone setting within the community; part of a larger community center; co-located with a primary or post-primary school; or, attached to, or part of a private dwelling.
An ELC may also consist of a childminding service undertaken by a registered childminder within their own home. Furthermore, with the introduction of early years speech and language therapy supports and similar projects that utilise the ELC as a key contact and support point for childcare and education within the community, many ELC are providing extended services to children, families, and staff.
Handrail
Component of stairs, steps or ramps that provides guidance and support at hand level.
Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC)
Heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.
Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
This includes a wide range of technologies such as computers, telecommunications, etc.
Leading edge
The opening edge of a door adjacent to the handle.
Matwell
Entrance door mattings set into a frame in the floor.
M²
Metres squared.
Newel post
The upright posts that support the bannister on a staircase.
Nosing
An edge part of the step tread at the top of the riser beneath in a flight of stairs.
Parietal Lobes
The brain comprises many different lobes (frontal, temporal, occipital and parietal) each with particular functions. The parietal lobes are found in the cortex of the brain and are where information such as taste, temperature and touch are integrated or processed. The parietal lobes enable us to negotiate our way in the three dimensional world in which we live. Humans would not be able to feel sensations of touch, if the parietal lobe was damaged.
Passenger lift
A conventional motorised lift enclosed within a structural shaft and rising one or more storeys within a building. Lift and door movement is automatic.
Path
A pedestrian route that has no adjacent vehicle carriageway and includes paths in countryside locations as well as paths in urban and residential environments.
Pavement
A pavement is the part of a roadway used by pedestrians and is adjacent to the vehicle carriageway.
PIR
A Passive Infrared (PIR) sensor-activated light fitting.
Placemaking
Placemaking is a people-centered approach to the planning, design and management of public and publicly accessible places such as streets, squares, parks, campuses, buildings, and other similar public spaces. It identifies the importance of ‘place’ and a ‘sense of place’ for human and community health and wellbeing. Placemaking is a process that carefully examines, among other local things, the social, cultural, ecological and physical attributes of a location. These attributes inform a process of improving or creating public places that support greater access, interaction, equality and equity, and more socially, and economically viable communities.
Positive risk-taking
Positive risk taking refers to balancing the positive benefits gained from taking risks against the negative effects of attempting to avoid risk altogether. In early childhood education, positive risk taking involves enabling children to face challenges, whilst ensuring children are protected from potentially hazardous situations.
Public Realm
The public realm typically refers to public space in villages, towns and cities. It usually consists of streets, squares, parks and other open public spaces, but it also refers to public internal space such as markets, public museums, and large government buildings. For the purposes of these guidelines we refer to the external and internal connective public spaces in the early years setting, as the public realm of the early years setting.
Ramp
An inclined plane 1:20 or steeper from the horizontal and intermediate landings
that facilitate access from one level to another.
Retro-fit
Carrying out building works to an existing building.
Riser
The vertical portion between each tread on the stair.
Setting-down point
A designated area close to a building entrance or other facility where passengers can alight from a car or taxi.
Síolta
The National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education.
Shower room
A room comprising a shower, WC, washbasin, and associated accessories, such as en-suite facilities in residential accommodation.
Soffit
The underside of any construction element, the underside of a flight of stairs.
Stakeholders
Any person or organisation that can affect, or can be affected by thedevelopment of a new Early Learning and Care setting, or the extension or
refurbishment of an existing early years setting.
Step nosing
The leading edge of a step or landing.
Street furniture
Items located in street and other pedestrian environments such as lamp posts, litter bins, signs, benches, and post boxes.
Tactile paving surface
A profiled paving or textured surface that provides guidance or warning to pedestrians with visual difficulties.
Transom
A horizontal crosspiece in a window frame usually dividing the window into a top and bottom section.
Tread
The part of the stairway that is stepped on.
Urban Form
The layout, shape, height and design details of the built environment, including streets, roads, public space, buildings etc. in an urban area.
U-Value
U-value refers to thermal transmittance and it is a measures the rate of heat that passes through a component or structure. It is expressed in units of watts per square metre per degree of air temperature difference (W/m2K).
Ventilation Strips
Vents integrated into a window frame that are in the shape of a bar or strip, and that can be controlled by opening or closing the aperture within the vent to different extents.
Vision panel
A fixed, glazed panel set into a door that enables people to see through from one side of the door to the other. May also be termed ‘viewing panel.’
Visual contrast
Colour and/or tonal contrast between surfaces and fixtures, designed to improve visual clarity.
Wayfinding
A collective term describing features in a building or environment that facilitate orientation and navigation.
Wet room
A shower room in which the floor and walls are all waterproof. The shower area can be accessed without crossing a threshold or stepping into a shower tray.
