Natural Language Understanding

A branch of artificial intelligence that enables computers to interpret the meaning and intent behind human language input, rather than requiring exact predetermined phrases or commands. In accessibility contexts, NLU is valuable for voice-controlled interfaces because it allows users to express commands in their own words — saying "skip this paragraph" or "go to the next paragraph" and having either understood as the same action. This reduces the cognitive burden of memorizing specific command phrases, making voice control more natural and forgiving. NLU systems typically extract intents (what the user wants to do) and entities (specific parameters like object names or quantities) from spoken or typed input.