Glossary

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Adaptive Musical Instrument(also: Accessible Musical Instrument, Adapted Instrument)

A musical instrument that has been modified or purpose-built to enable people with disabilities to play music. Adaptive musical instruments may use alternative input methods such as head movement, breath control, eye tracking, or switch access to replace or supplement…

Aesthetic Blindness

Aesthetic blindness is a myth and misconception rooted in ableism that assumes blind people cannot perceive, appreciate, or create beauty because beauty is rendered solely through visual means. This assumption has historically led to the exclusion of blind and low vision people…

Art Therapy(also: Creative Arts Therapy, Arts Therapy)

A form of psychotherapy that uses creative art-making as the primary mode of expression and communication. Art therapy is facilitated by trained therapists and can involve painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, and other visual arts activities. For older adults with dementia and…

Artistic Ownership(also: Creative Ownership, Authorial Agency)

The sense of being the authentic creator of one's own artwork, encompassing both the process and the final product. For digital artists with disabilities, artistic ownership is complicated by reliance on templates, automated tools, and assistive technologies that may feel like…

Co-Creative(also: Co-Creativity, Co-Creative AI)

A framing of human-AI collaboration in which the AI acts as a creative partner rather than a tool or a replacement — contributing ideas, drafts, or alternatives that the human writer, artist, or designer evaluates, accepts, rejects, or revises. Co-creative systems typically…

Creativity Support Tools(also: CST, Creative Support Software)

Creativity support tools (CSTs) are software applications and systems designed to help people engage in creative activities such as writing, drawing, music production, photography, video editing, graphic design, and programming. In the context of accessibility, CSTs present…

Digital Art Accessibility(also: Accessible Digital Art Tools)

The design and availability of digital creative tools—including drawing software, graphic input devices, and editing platforms—that can be effectively used by artists with disabilities. Key accessibility considerations include customizable pressure sensitivity, simplified menu…

Disability Aesthetics

A discourse related to reclaiming the visibility of disability in mainstream art, particularly visual and performance arts, through the depiction of disabled bodies as both beautiful and inspiring. Unlike disability art, disability aesthetics does not necessarily carry a social…

Disability Art(also: Disability Arts)

Artistic work created by disabled artists that is specifically informed by their experience of disability, often rooted in the social dynamics of identity, disability culture, and the struggle for disability justice and equality. Disability art is distinct from art therapy…

Drake Music Project(also: Drake Music, DMP)

A UK charity founded in 1988 that facilitates music-making for physically disabled people through technology. The Drake Music Project runs workshops using adapted music technology — including MIDI controllers, switches, and customized software — to enable people with physical…

EyeDraw(also: Eye Draw)

A software application developed at the University of Oregon that enables people with severe motor impairments, particularly children, to create freehand drawings using eye movements tracked by an eye tracker. EyeDraw uses a two-state interaction model where users alternate…

Interactive Dance(also: Interactive Dance Performance, Digital Dance)

A performance genre in which dancers' movements, physiology, or prop interactions are captured in real time (via motion capture, biosensors, or sensor-equipped objects) and used to drive digital visual or audio output — most commonly projected backdrops, lighting effects, or…

Music Accessibility(also: Accessible Music, Musical Accessibility)

The practice of making musical experiences — including listening, performing, composing, and learning — available to people with disabilities. Music accessibility encompasses a wide range of approaches, from sensory substitution technologies that convert sound to vibration or…

Music GenAI(also: Generative Music AI, AI Music Generation)

Generative AI systems that produce musical output — melodies, full songs, instrumental accompaniment, or vocal tracks — from text prompts, seed audio, or structured parameters. Examples include Suno, Udio, MusicLM, and MusicGen. In accessibility and therapy contexts, music GenAI…

Music Psychotherapy

A form of music therapy that uses musical activities — songwriting, improvisation, lyric analysis, receptive listening — to address emotional, psychological, and relational concerns rather than sensory or rehabilitative goals. Practitioners are typically licensed music…

Non-Visual Drawing(also: Blind Drawing, Drawing Without Sight)

The practice of creating graphical representations — such as diagrams, shapes, charts, or illustrations — without relying on visual feedback. Non-visual drawing can be accomplished through tactile methods (using raised line drawing kits or embossing tools), audio-tactile methods…

Practice-based Research(also: PbR)

A research approach, associated with Candy and Edmonds, in which creative practice itself is the vehicle for original inquiry and knowledge generation. Research questions arise from and are resolved through the making and performance of works, with tacit and embodied knowledge…

Songwriting(also: Therapeutic Songwriting)

A therapeutic intervention in which a client, often collaborating with a therapist, composes original lyrics and musical elements as a way to explore emotions, reframe experiences, and build a sense of authorship over their own narrative. In music psychotherapy, songwriting is…

Suno(also: Suno AI, Suno v3.5)

A commercial generative AI platform that produces full songs — lyrics, vocals, instrumentation — from short natural-language prompts specifying genre, mood, tempo, and lyrical content. Suno is widely adopted in HCI research on music co-creation, journaling, and therapy because…

Tactile Art(also: Touch Art, Haptic Art)

Pictures, illustrations, sculptures, and multimodal compositions that are created to be accessible through the sense of touch, either crafted intentionally for touch-focused experiences or made accessible through tactile or haptic properties. Tactile art is distinguished from…

Tactile Drawing(also: Tactile Picture Making)

The process of creating raised-line images that can be perceived through touch rather than vision. Tactile drawing can be done by blind or sighted people using methods such as drawing on swell paper with a thermo pen to produce immediately raised lines, using a stylus on plastic…

Visual Vernacular(also: VV)

A deeply visual sign language performance art form rooted in visual storytelling, developed in the 1970s by deaf American actor Bernard Bragg and widely practiced internationally. Visual Vernacular combines gesture, facial expression, classifiers, body movement, and cinematic…

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