Information Transfer Rate

A measure of the speed and accuracy with which a user can communicate information to a computer through an input device, typically expressed in bits per second. Information transfer rate accounts for both the size of the input vocabulary (how many possible commands exist) and the accuracy with which inputs are recognized, providing a more meaningful metric than raw speed alone. In assistive technology evaluation, ITR is used to compare the effectiveness of different input methods — such as gesture recognition, brain-computer interfaces, or switch scanning — to determine which approach best serves a particular user's needs.