Glossary

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Ability Assumptions(also: Ability-Based Assumptions, Normative Assumptions)

Ability assumptions are the implicit expectations that technology designers build into systems about users' physical, sensory, and cognitive capabilities. These assumptions — about how fast someone moves, their range of motion, body proportions, grip strength, speech patterns,…

Ability assumption in AI(also: Visual ability assumption, Sighted bias in AI)

The tendency of AI systems to assume users possess typical sensory, cognitive, or physical abilities, leading to inappropriate responses or instructions. In the context of visual AI assistants for blind users, ability assumptions manifest as the system asking users to "read the…

Ability-Based Design(also: ABD)

A design philosophy that focuses on what users can do rather than what they cannot, adapting systems to leverage each individual's specific abilities. Instead of designing for a "typical" user and then adding accessibility accommodations, ability-based design starts from the…

Ability-Diverse Collaboration(also: Cross-Ability Collaboration, Mixed-Ability Collaboration)

A framework for understanding collaborative interactions between individuals with different abilities, where participants strategically combine and share their capabilities to achieve shared outcomes. The Ability-Diverse Collaboration Framework identifies two key modes of…

Abundant Design(also: Abundant UI Design)

A design approach for cognitively accessible interfaces in which primary actions are represented by multiple redundant cues — short text, an icon, a distinctive color, and ample size — so users can identify the control through whichever channel suits them. Contrasts with minimal…

Access Conflict(also: Accessibility Conflict, Competing Access Needs)

A situation in which the accessibility requirements of one person conflict with or undermine the accessibility requirements of another person. For example, a student prone to migraines may need low lighting in a classroom, while a student with low vision requires bright, direct…

Access Friction(also: Accessibility Friction)

The effort, frustration, or barriers encountered when attempting to access technology, services, or environments. Access friction can range from minor inconveniences to complete exclusion and may result from poorly designed interfaces, lack of accommodations, bureaucratic…

Access Needs(also: Accessibility Needs, Access Requirements)

The specific requirements a person has in order to access information, environments, services, or activities on an equal basis. Access needs vary by individual and context, and may relate to sensory, cognitive, physical, or communication requirements. The concept of access needs…

Accessibility Gap(also: Usability Gap, Digital Divide)

The measurable disparity in task performance, user experience, or access between people with disabilities and people without disabilities when using digital technology. The accessibility gap is commonly measured through differences in task completion time, error rates, success…

Accessibility Technology(also: Access Technology)

A broad term encompassing any technology used to address accessibility barriers, including both dedicated assistive technologies and mainstream technologies repurposed for access. Unlike the narrower term assistive technology, accessibility technology recognizes that people may…

Accessibility on the Move(also: Mobile Accessibility, Accessibility in Transit)

A conceptual framing that recognizes accessibility as a continuous, context-dependent process that must be renegotiated when a person moves between different physical, cultural, social, and technical infrastructures. Unlike static accessibility assessments tied to a single…

Accessible Computing(also: Computing Accessibility)

The design, development, and deployment of computing systems, tools, and interfaces that can be effectively used by people with disabilities. Accessible computing encompasses web accessibility, mobile accessibility, screen reader compatibility, alternative input methods, and…

Accessible Digital Musical Instrument(also: ADMI)

An Accessible Digital Musical Instrument (ADMI) is a digital musical instrument that has been designed or adapted to be usable by people with disabilities. ADMIs typically use motion capture, gesture recognition, or other sensor technologies to map physical movements to sound,…

Accessible Education(also: Inclusive Education)

The practice of designing educational environments, materials, and technologies so that all students, including those with disabilities, can participate fully and equally. Accessible education encompasses physical accessibility of classrooms and campuses, digital accessibility…

Accessible Fabrication(also: Accessible Making, Accessible Digital Fabrication)

Accessible fabrication refers to the design and use of digital fabrication tools — such as 3D printers, laser cutters, and CNC machines — in ways that are usable by people with disabilities and that produce accessible outputs. This includes making the fabrication tools…

Accessible Gaming(also: Game Accessibility, Inclusive Gaming)

The design and development of video games and interactive entertainment that can be played by people with disabilities. Accessible gaming encompasses adaptable controls, audio-based gameplay, haptic feedback, customizable difficulty, and alternative input methods. It ensures…

Accessible Relocation(also: Accessible Migration)

The process of moving to a new city or country while maintaining or re-establishing access to disability-related services, accommodations, and support networks. Accessible relocation involves challenges at every phase: researching accessibility conditions of the destination…

Accessible Tourism(also: Inclusive Tourism, Disability Tourism, Universal Tourism)

Accessible tourism refers to the effort to ensure that tourism destinations, products, and services are usable by all people regardless of their physical, sensory, or cognitive abilities. This encompasses the entire travel chain: pre-trip information and booking, transportation,…

Active Support

A person-centred model of support that enables people with intellectual disabilities, including those with severe and profound disabilities, to participate meaningfully in everyday activities and relationships. Active support involves providing graded levels of assistance — from…

Adaptive Interface(also: Adaptive UI, Self-Adapting Interface)

A user interface that automatically adjusts its layout, content, or behavior based on user context, abilities, preferences, or device constraints without requiring explicit user configuration. Adaptive interfaces in accessibility research have included systems that modify visual…

Adaptive content complexity(also: Layered descriptions, Tiered content)

A design strategy that provides the same information at multiple levels of detail or complexity, allowing users to access content appropriate to their cognitive processing capacity, prior knowledge, or current needs. For example, a system might offer simple, medium, and detailed…

Age-Related Accessibility(also: Aging and Accessibility, Older Adult Accessibility)

The design considerations and accommodations needed to ensure digital technology is usable by older adults who experience age-related changes in vision, hearing, cognition, and motor control. Common challenges include reduced visual acuity and contrast sensitivity, narrowed…

Age-Related Changes(also: Aging Effects, Age-Associated Decline)

Physical, sensory, and cognitive changes that occur naturally as people age, affecting how they interact with technology. Common changes include reduced visual acuity, hearing loss, decreased motor control, slower processing speed, and changes in working memory. However,…

Age-Sensitive Design(also: Age-Sensitive Creative AI Mediation)

A design stance that treats age-related physical, cognitive, and digital-literacy characteristics as first-class inputs to the system design process rather than as edge cases to be handled after the fact. For interactive and AI-supported tools, age-sensitive design typically…

Age-friendly design(also: Senior-friendly design, Gerontechnology design)

A design approach that specifically addresses the perceptual, cognitive, and motor changes associated with aging, including larger fonts, simplified interfaces, reduced jargon, higher contrast, and minimized demands on working memory and perceptual speed. Research shows that…

Agency(also: User Agency, Sense of Agency)

The capacity to act, make choices, and exert control over one's own life and environment. In disability studies, agency is distinguished from independence — a person can have agency (the ability to make decisions and direct actions) while still relying on others for support,…

Aging(also: Ageing)

Aging is the biological, psychological, and social process of growing older, which in accessibility practice is associated with a predictable cluster of changes: declining near and low-contrast vision, hearing loss at higher frequencies, reduced fine motor precision, slower…

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…

Assets-Based Design(also: Strengths-Based Design, Asset-Based Approach)

A design philosophy that focuses on the existing strengths, capabilities, resources, and strategies of users rather than defining them primarily by their deficits or limitations. In accessibility and aging contexts, assets-based design means building technology that integrates…

Assistive Technology Mainstreaming(also: Mainstreaming, AT Mainstreaming)

A design philosophy and practice where assistive technology features are integrated into mainstream consumer products rather than developed as separate, specialized devices. Examples include smartphones with built-in screen readers, tablets used for AAC, and headphones that also…

Asymmetric Gameplay(also: Asymmetric Game Design, Asymmetric Multiplayer)

A game design approach where different players have different roles, abilities, information, or challenges within the same game. In the context of accessibility, asymmetric gameplay is a promising strategy for mixed-ability gaming because it allows each player's role and…

Audience Modelling(also: Audience Modeling, User Modelling)

The practice of characterizing and formally describing distinct groups of users and their interaction characteristics to inform the design and evaluation of web interfaces. In accessibility, audience modelling involves identifying the specific abilities, disabilities, devices,…

Audio Game(also: Audiogame, Audio-Based Game, Accessible Game)

A video game designed primarily or entirely around audio output rather than visual graphics, making it accessible to players who are blind or have visual impairments. Audio games use techniques such as 3D spatial audio, sound effects, text-to-speech, and musical cues to convey…

Audio Icon(also: Auditory Icon, Earcon)

A non-speech sound used in a user interface to represent an object, action, or event, analogous to how visual icons represent concepts graphically. Audio icons use everyday sounds that have a natural association with what they represent (e.g., a crumpling sound for deleting a…

Audio-First Design(also: Audio-Centric Design, Sound-First Design)

A design approach that prioritizes audio as the primary interaction modality rather than treating it as a secondary alternative to visual interfaces. Audio-first design is particularly relevant for creating accessible educational content and AI tools for people with vision…

Aural Diversity(also: Hearing diversity)

A framework that recognizes the wide variation in how humans perceive and engage with sound, rather than treating typical hearing as the norm against which all other experiences are measured. Aural diversity spans d/Deaf, Hard of Hearing, hyperacusis, tinnitus, misophonia,…

Automatic UI Generation(also: Auto-Generated Interface, Model-Based UI Generation)

The process of computationally producing a graphical user interface from an abstract specification of its functionality, rather than having designers manually create the visual layout. In accessibility, automatic UI generation is significant because it can produce interfaces…

Autonomous Public Transport(also: Autonomous Public Transit, Driverless Public Transport)

Public-transport services — buses, shuttles, ferries, trams — operated wholly or partly by self-driving technology, typically supervised remotely rather than by an onboard driver. From an accessibility perspective, autonomous public transport simultaneously promises cheaper,…

Autonomous Vehicle(also: AV, Self-Driving Car, Automated Driving System)

A vehicle equipped with technology that enables it to navigate and operate without human input, ranging from partial automation features like adaptive cruise control to fully autonomous systems that handle all driving tasks. Autonomous vehicles represent a potentially…

Beauty Accessibility(also: Accessible Beauty, Inclusive Beauty)

The design and practice of making beauty and personal grooming products, tools, services, and information accessible to people with disabilities. Beauty accessibility encompasses tactile and braille product labeling, non-visual makeup application techniques, accessible beauty…

Bespoke Design(also: Custom Design, Bespoke Assistive Technology)

The creation of individually tailored products or solutions made to meet the specific needs of a single user, as opposed to mass-produced or universally designed items. In assistive technology, bespoke design addresses the reality that every person's combination of abilities,…

Biometric Authentication(also: Biometrics, Biometric Security, Behavioral Biometrics)

Security technology that uses unique biological or behavioral characteristics to verify identity, including fingerprints, facial recognition, iris scans, voice patterns, and handwritten signatures. Accessibility considerations are critical because many biometric systems assume…

Biophilia(also: Biophilia Hypothesis)

The hypothesis, popularized by biologist E. O. Wilson, that humans have an innate affinity for living things and natural systems, and that contact with nature is therefore a fundamental contributor to physical and psychological wellbeing. Biophilia underpins much research on…

Board Game Accessibility(also: Tabletop Game Accessibility)

The practice of making physical board games, card games, and tabletop games playable by people with disabilities. Most commercial board games rely heavily on visual information — printed text, colors, visual textures, and spatial layouts — making them inaccessible to blind and…

Born Accessible(also: Born-Accessible, Accessibility-First)

An approach to content creation where accessibility is designed in from the beginning rather than retrofitted afterward. Born accessible content is created with accessibility requirements as core specifications, ensuring that people with disabilities can access it immediately…

Capability Sensitive Design

A design approach, proposed by Ilse Oosterlaken, that takes human diversity morally seriously and evaluates technologies by how they actually expand or constrain the real opportunities (capabilities) available to individual users. Capability Sensitive Design extends the…

Celebratory technology

Technology designed to highlight, affirm, and celebrate neurodivergent and disabled ways of being, rather than seeking to correct, normalize, or remediate them. Coined by LouAnne Boyd (2023), celebratory technology contrasts with deficit-oriented assistive technology by…

Chatbot Accessibility(also: Accessible Chatbot Design, CUI Accessibility)

The practice of designing chatbots and conversational user interfaces (CUIs) to be usable by people with disabilities. Chatbot accessibility presents unique challenges compared to traditional web accessibility because CUIs involve dynamic, dialogue-based interactions rather than…

Child Agency

Child agency is a child's capacity to initiate, shape, direct, and sustain activities - including play, conversation, and social interaction - rather than passively accepting adult or peer control. In accessibility research for children, agency is recognised as relational and…

Co-Design(also: Participatory Design, Co-Creation)

A design methodology that actively involves end users, stakeholders, and domain experts as equal partners throughout the design process. In accessibility, co-design ensures that the people who will use assistive technologies or accessible products have meaningful input into…