Glossary

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ASL(also: American Sign Language)

Abbreviation for American Sign Language, the primary sign language used by Deaf communities in the United States and much of Canada. ASL is a complete, natural language with its own grammar, vocabulary, and specialized registers (including STEM vocabulary), and is linguistically…

ASL education technology(also: Sign language learning technology)

Technology designed to support the teaching and learning of American Sign Language, ranging from video-based instructional platforms and feedback systems to computer vision tools that analyse signing performance. ASL education technology is an accessibility enabler because…

ASR Captioning(also: Automatic Captioning, Live Auto-Captioning, AI Captioning)

The use of automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology to generate real-time text captions of spoken language, commonly used as an accessibility tool for Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals in meetings, lectures, and video calls. Unlike professional captioning services (such…

Acoustic Activity Recognition(also: Sound Activity Recognition, Audio Activity Recognition, Environmental Sound Recognition)

The use of microphones and machine learning to automatically identify and classify sounds occurring in an environment, such as doorbells, alarms, appliances, speech, and other everyday acoustic events. Acoustic activity recognition is particularly relevant to accessibility for…

Affective Captions(also: Affective Captioning, Emotive Captions)

Captions that convey not only the spoken words but also the emotional qualities of speech — such as valence (positive vs. negative tone) and arousal (intensity) — typically through typographic modulations like font-color, font-weight, or font-size, and increasingly through…

American Sign Language(also: ASL)

A complete, natural language with its own grammar, syntax, and vocabulary, expressed through hand shapes, facial expressions, and body movements, used primarily by Deaf communities in the United States and parts of Canada. ASL is not a signed version of English—it has distinct…

Assistive Listening Device(also: ALD, Hearing Assistive Technology)

Any device designed to improve audibility for a person with hearing loss, beyond or in addition to a hearing aid or cochlear implant. Common examples include personal amplifiers, FM and radio-frequency systems, infrared systems, and induction loop (hearing loop) systems…

Audio-Language Model(also: ALM, Audio LLM)

A multimodal artificial intelligence model that jointly processes audio signals and natural language text, enabling it to generate detailed textual descriptions of audio content, answer questions about sounds, and reason about auditory scenes. Audio-language models like…

Audio-Reactive Visuals(also: Sound-Reactive Displays, Audio-Visual Feedback)

Visual display systems that respond in real time to audio input, translating sound properties such as frequency, amplitude, pitch, and rhythm into light, color, and movement. In accessibility contexts, audio-reactive visuals serve as a sensory substitution channel for d/Deaf and…

Auditory Scene Analysis(also: ASA, Computational Auditory Scene Analysis)

The process by which the auditory system organizes and interprets complex mixtures of sounds into distinct perceptual events or streams, allowing listeners to separate and identify individual sound sources within an environment. In accessibility contexts, auditory scene analysis…

Auditory processing disorder(also: APD, Central auditory processing disorder, CAPD)

A neurological condition in which the brain has difficulty interpreting and organizing sounds despite normal hearing ability. Unlike hearing loss, auditory processing disorder affects how the central auditory nervous system processes what is heard, making it difficult to…

Aural Interface(also: Voice Interface, Voice-Controlled Interface, Voice User Interface)

An aural interface is a user interface that relies primarily on spoken language for both input (voice commands) and output (spoken responses). Examples include Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, and Google Assistant. While aural interfaces have become increasingly popular due to their…

Automatic Caption Evaluation(also: ACE, ACE Framework, ACE Metric)

A caption-quality evaluation framework introduced by Sushant Kafle and Matt Huenerfauth (2017-2018) that scores automatically generated captions based on their usability for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing readers, rather than simply counting transcription errors. For each mismatch…

Backchannel Feedback(also: Backchannel, Backchanneling, Backchannel Cues)

Verbal or non-verbal signals given by a listener during a conversation to show attention, understanding, or agreement without taking over the speaking turn. Common examples include head nods, vocalizations like mm-hmm, thumbs-up gestures, and brief verbal affirmations.…

Bilingual Education(also: Bilingual-Bicultural Education, Bi-Bi Education)

Bilingual education in the context of deaf education refers to teaching approaches that use both sign language and the written form of a spoken language as languages of instruction. Often called bilingual-bicultural (Bi-Bi) education, this model recognizes sign language as the…

Bilingual-Bicultural Education(also: Bi-Bi Education, Bilingual Bicultural Education)

Bilingual-bicultural (Bi-Bi) education is an approach to Deaf education in which children learn in both a natural sign language (e.g., ASL, BSL, LSF, LGP) as a first language and the surrounding written/spoken language as a second language, while engaging substantively with both…

Bimodal Bilingualism(also: Bimodal-Bilingual)

The ability to use two languages that exist in different modalities — typically a signed language (visual-gestural modality) and a spoken/written language (auditory-vocal modality). Unlike unimodal bilinguals who use two spoken languages, bimodal bilinguals can potentially…

Bone conduction(also: Bone conduction hearing, Bone anchored hearing)

Bone conduction is a method of sound transmission that delivers audio vibrations through the bones of the skull directly to the inner ear, bypassing the outer and middle ear. Bone conduction technology is used in hearing aids and headphones designed for people with conductive…

C-Print(also: C-Print Pro)

A meaning-for-meaning real-time captioning service where a trained captioner produces a condensed transcription of spoken classroom content, as opposed to the verbatim word-for-word transcription provided by CART. C-Print captioners are trained in text-condensing strategies that…

CART(also: Communication Access Realtime Translation, Real-Time Captioning, Realtime Captioning)

A professional service providing instant, verbatim text display of spoken content, typically delivered by trained stenographers using specialized equipment. CART achieves accuracy rates of 98% or higher, far exceeding automatic speech recognition systems. It is commonly used in…

CEA-708(also: CTA-708, EIA-708, Digital Closed Captioning)

A US standard for digital closed captioning on digital television broadcasts and streaming, superseding the analog-era CEA-608 standard. CEA-708 supports richer presentation than its predecessor, including multiple fonts, colours, opacity, text positioning, and up to 63 caption…

Caption Flow(also: Captioning Flow, Text Flow)

The smoothness and regularity with which caption text appears and updates on screen during real-time captioning. Good caption flow means text arrives at a consistent pace without jarring delays, sudden bursts, or choppy delivery. Research shows that caption flow significantly…

Caption Highlighting(also: Text Highlighting in Captions, Keyword Highlighting in Captions)

The visual emphasis of important words within video captions to help viewers quickly identify key concepts and reduce the cognitive load of reading dynamic text. Research with Deaf and Hard of Hearing users has found that underlining 5-15% of the most important words in captions…

Caption Occlusion(also: Caption Blocking, Subtitle Occlusion)

The phenomenon where captions or subtitles visually block or cover other important information displayed on a video screen. Caption occlusion is a significant accessibility concern for Deaf and Hard of Hearing viewers, who depend on captions for dialogue access but may…

Caption Placement(also: Caption Positioning, Subtitle Placement)

The decision of where captions or subtitles are positioned on a video screen, which significantly affects the viewing experience of Deaf and Hard of Hearing users. Poor caption placement can occlude important visual information such as speakers' faces, onscreen graphics, or news…

Caption Quality(also: Subtitle Quality)

The overall fitness of a set of captions or subtitles for their intended accessibility purpose. Quality is multi-dimensional: it includes text accuracy (whether spoken words are correctly transcribed, commonly measured by Word Error Rate or the NER model), synchronicity with the…

Caption quality metric(also: ACE metric, Caption evaluation metric)

A measure designed to predict how understandable automatically generated captions are for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing users, as an alternative to standard Word Error Rate which correlates poorly with actual DHH comprehension. The Automatic Caption Evaluation (ACE) metric combines…

Captioning(also: Captions, Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, SDH)

The process of displaying synchronized text on screen that represents spoken dialogue, sound effects, and other audio information in video content. Unlike subtitles, captions are specifically designed for deaf and hard of hearing viewers and include non-speech sounds like [door…

Certified Deaf Interpreter(also: CDI)

A Deaf or Hard-of-hearing individual who has obtained professional certification from the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) to provide interpreting, translation, and transliteration services. CDIs work in tandem with hearing interpreters or independently, bringing…

Chinese Natural Sign Language(also: CNSL)

Chinese Natural Sign Language (CNSL) is the language used by roughly twenty million Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people in China. Unlike Chinese Sign Language (CSL) — an artificial, school-and-broadcast system that follows spoken Mandarin word order — CNSL has its own spatial-visual…

Circumplex Model of Affect(also: Russell's Circumplex Model, Valence-Arousal Model)

A psychological framework that represents emotions along two continuous dimensions: valence (pleasure vs. displeasure) and arousal (activation vs. deactivation). Proposed by James Russell in 1980, the model maps all emotional states onto a circular space rather than treating…

Closed Captioning(also: CC, Closed Captions)

Text displayed on a screen that transcribes spoken dialogue, identifies speakers, and describes relevant sound effects in video content. Unlike open captions which are permanently embedded in the video, closed captions can be toggled on or off by the viewer. Closed captioning is…

Cochlear Implant(also: CI)

A surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to individuals who are deaf or have severe hearing loss. Unlike hearing aids which amplify sound, cochlear implants bypass damaged portions of the inner ear and directly stimulate the auditory nerve. The…

Collective Communication Access(also: CCA)

A framework developed by McDonnell et al. (2023) that reconceptualises communication access as a shared, co-constructed practice distributed across everyone involved in an interaction, rather than as an individual accommodation provided to disabled participants. CCA argues that…

Communication Burden(also: Burden of Communication, Conversational Burden)

The disproportionate effort that people with communication-related disabilities must exert to participate in conversations, particularly in mixed-ability groups. In the context of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) individuals, communication burden refers to the repeated need to ask…

Continuous Sign Language(also: Connected Sign Language, Continuous Signing)

Sign language produced in natural, flowing sentences and discourse, as opposed to isolated individual signs. Continuous sign language includes phenomena like co-articulation (where one sign influences the formation of the next), epenthesis (insertion of transitional movements…

Crowdsourced Captioning(also: Crowd Captioning, Collaborative Captioning)

Crowdsourced captioning is an approach to creating video captions or subtitles by distributing the work across multiple contributors rather than relying on a single professional captionist. This method can leverage diverse workers with varying language skills, hearing abilities,…

Customizable Captioning(also: Personalized Captions, Adaptive Captioning)

Captioning systems that allow users to modify how captions are displayed, including visual styling, content detail, and the representation of paralinguistic speech features such as emotion, loudness, and pitch. Unlike standard closed captions that offer only basic font and size…

DHH(also: D/HH, Deaf and Hard of Hearing)

An abbreviation for "Deaf and Hard of Hearing," encompassing the full spectrum of hearing differences from culturally Deaf individuals who use sign language as a primary language to people with varying degrees of hearing loss who may use hearing aids, cochlear implants, or rely…

Deaf(also: deaf, Big-D Deaf)

A term with dual meaning in accessibility contexts: lowercase "deaf" refers to the audiological condition of having significant hearing loss, while uppercase "Deaf" refers to cultural identity and membership in the Deaf community, which has its own language, values, and social…

Deaf Community(also: Deaf World, Signing Community)

A cultural and linguistic community of people who are Deaf or hard of hearing and who share a common language (typically a sign language), cultural values, traditions, and social norms. The Deaf community is distinguished from the broader population of people with hearing loss…

Deaf Education(also: Deaf Pedagogy, Education of the Deaf)

Deaf education encompasses the teaching methods, curricula, and educational systems designed to meet the learning needs of deaf and hard of hearing students. It spans a range of approaches from oral methods emphasizing speech and lipreading, to bilingual-bicultural programs that…

Deaf Epistemology(also: Deaf Ways of Knowing)

A body of theory and practice that recognizes Deaf communities as producers of distinct knowledge grounded in visual-spatial modalities, embodied interaction, sign language, and community experience. Deaf epistemologies foreground visual primacy, sightlines, and shared cultural…

Deaf Gain

A reframing concept that positions Deafness not as a loss (hearing loss) but as a gain — emphasizing the unique contributions, perspectives, and capabilities that Deaf individuals and Deaf culture bring to human diversity. Coined by H-Dirksen Bauman and Joseph Murray, Deaf Gain…

Deaf Pedagogy

An educational framework that centers Deaf students' visual and multimodal resources, resists deficit models of deafness, and embraces translanguaging and visual-relational classroom norms. Deaf pedagogy treats sign language as the medium of instruction, arranges classrooms for…

Deaf Speech(also: Deaf Accent, Deaf Voice)

Accented speech produced by many individuals who are deaf or significantly hard of hearing, resulting from incomplete acoustic feedback from their own voices. Because deaf speakers cannot fully hear themselves, their speech patterns often differ from those of hearing speakers in…

Deaf Tech(also: Deaf-Centered Technology)

A framework and design orientation for technologies created by, with, and centering Deaf communities. Deaf Tech emphasizes participatory design, cultural relevance, and alignment with Deaf epistemologies and practices, rather than positioning Deaf users as end-consumers of…

Deaf digital library(also: Sign language archive, Deaf digital heritage)

A collection of video content in sign languages that preserves and provides access to Deaf community knowledge, culture, experiences, and opinions. Video sharing platforms like YouTube function as de-facto digital libraries for signing communities, but the lack of reliable…

DeafSpace(also: Deaf Space, Deaf Geography)

A design philosophy and set of architectural and spatial principles developed from understanding how deaf people experience and navigate physical and digital environments. DeafSpace considers factors like visual access, lighting, spatial orientation, and the need for…

Deafhood

A concept introduced by Paddy Ladd that reframes Deaf identity as a process of becoming and self-actualization rather than a medical condition to be fixed. Deafhood emphasizes the possibilities and richness of Deaf experience, culture, and language, explicitly rejecting…