Definition of 'access function' in relation to the activation record

Question

What does the term 'access function' refer to in compiler design? Specifically, the access functions present in runtime.

For example, you could construct an access function for a 3D column-major array like so: "The subscript ranges of the three dimensions can be named min(1), min(2), min(3), max(1), max(2), and max(3), where min(1), min(2), and min(3) are lower bounds for dimension one, dimension two, and dimension three respectively, and max(1), max(2), and max(3) are upper bounds for dimension one, two, and three respectively. Assume an element size."

What would an access function refer to in the above context? Help would be appreciated.