Glossary

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Body Sheet(also: Body Map, Body Mapping)

A body sheet is an outline drawing of the human body (typically front, back, and side views) used as a canvas onto which participants map bodily sensations, emotions, or symptoms. Originating in art therapy and physiotherapy pain-mapping practice, body sheets have been adopted…

Close Reading

A qualitative analytic method in which researchers slowly and attentively examine a text, image, or artifact, documenting observable features and interpretive responses in detail. In accessibility research, close reading is used to surface patterns in artifacts such as alt text,…

Codebook (Research)(also: Coding Manual, Qualitative Codebook)

A codebook is a structured set of codes, definitions, and application rules used to systematically analyse qualitative data (interview transcripts, observation notes, documents) or to extract data from literature for review work. It typically specifies each code's name,…

Constructivist Grounded Theory(also: CGT)

A qualitative research methodology developed by Kathy Charmaz that adapts classic grounded theory by acknowledging that the researcher's theoretical commitments and lived experience shape the categories that emerge from the data. Rather than claiming a neutral "view from…

Counternarratives(also: Counter-storytelling, Critical Counter-narrative)

A qualitative research and pedagogical technique, rooted in critical race theory and education research (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002), in which members of marginalized groups write and share their own stories to challenge dominant, “flat” narratives about their identities. In…

Critical Incident Questionnaire(also: CIQ)

A short, open-ended reflective tool developed by Stephen Brookfield for teaching and learning contexts, typically consisting of five questions asking participants to recall moments from a recent experience that were most engaging, surprising, confusing, distancing, or affirming.…

Delphi Method(also: Delphi Technique, Delphi Interview)

A structured research technique originally developed by the RAND Corporation for forecasting, in which a panel of experts participates in multiple rounds of questioning to reach consensus on a topic. In accessibility and HCI research, the Delphi method is used to gather expert…

Ethnographic Study(also: Ethnography, Ethnographic Research)

A qualitative research methodology originating in anthropology that involves prolonged, immersive observation of people in their natural environments to understand their behaviours, practices, and social contexts. In accessibility and assistive technology research, ethnographic…

Ethnography(also: Ethnographic Research, Ethnographic Methods)

A qualitative research methodology originating in anthropology that involves observing people in their natural environments to understand their behaviours, practices, and social interactions in context. In accessibility research, ethnographic methods such as participant…

Focus Group(also: Focus Group Discussion, Group Interview)

A qualitative research method in which a small group of participants (typically 3-10) with shared characteristics discuss a topic guided by a moderator, allowing researchers to explore perspectives, opinions, and experiences through group interaction. Focus groups are considered…

Heavy Disguise

A research-ethics technique introduced by Amy Bruckman (2002) for handling quotes and user-generated content drawn from public online spaces. Under heavy disguise the researcher rephrases quotations, omits usernames and platform identifiers, and verifies (e.g., via search) that…

Information Power

A sample-adequacy principle for qualitative research, proposed by Malterud, Siersma, and Guassora (2016), which holds that the more information a study sample holds that is relevant to the research question, the fewer participants are needed. Adequacy is judged against five…

Interaction Analysis

A qualitative research method for studying knowledge and action in interaction with people, objects, and environments — typically through close observation of video or screen recordings, annotating visible affect, body language, utterances, and moment-by-moment behavior.…

Interpretive phenomenological analysis(also: IPA)

A qualitative research methodology focused on exploring how people make sense of their lived experiences, widely used in accessibility and disability research. IPA involves detailed analysis of individual accounts — typically through in-depth interviews — to understand…

Krippendorff's Alpha(also: Krippendorff Alpha, Kalpha)

A statistical measure of inter-rater agreement used to assess how consistently two or more coders classify the same qualitative data. Developed by Klaus Krippendorff, the metric handles any number of coders, any level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio), and…

Narrative-Flip Method(also: Narrative flip)

A qualitative HCI research method in which participants first encounter a technology or artifact without knowing its origins or intent, reflect on it, and only afterwards are told its disability-led, activist, or political context. The deliberate before/after framing surfaces…

Phenomenology(also: Phenomenological Inquiry)

Phenomenology is a philosophical tradition and research methodology concerned with the structures of lived, first-person experience. Originating with Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty, it emphasizes how phenomena appear to consciousness rather than what they are in objective…

Podcast analysis(also: Podcast content analysis)

A qualitative research method that uses publicly available podcast episodes as data sources, applying thematic or content analysis to extract insights from naturalistic discussions. In accessibility research, analyzing podcasts produced by and for disabled communities offers…

Positionality Statement(also: Reflexivity Statement)

A short written statement, most commonly found in qualitative research papers and accessibility HCI publications, in which authors articulate the personal, cultural, professional, and disability-related standpoints that shape their interpretation of the work. Positionality…

Qualitative Content Analysis(also: QCA)

A systematic qualitative research method for interpreting the content of text, interview transcripts, or other communication data by coding recurring patterns and organizing them into categories. QCA can be inductive (categories emerge from data) or deductive (categories derived…

Reflection-in-Action(also: Reflection-on-Action)

A concept from Donald Schön's theory of reflective practice (The Reflective Practitioner, 1983) describing how skilled practitioners adjust their approach in the moment, based on tacit knowledge and immediate feedback from the situation, rather than by following pre-specified…

Reflexive Ethnography

Reflexive ethnography is an approach to ethnographic research in which the researcher explicitly documents and analyses how their own identity, assumptions, relationships and shifting position in the field shape the knowledge produced. Rather than presenting findings as neutral…

Reflexive thematic analysis(also: RTA)

A qualitative research method developed by Braun and Clarke that involves the researcher actively and reflexively generating themes from data, rather than treating themes as pre-existing entities to be discovered. Unlike other thematic analysis approaches, RTA explicitly…

Reflexivity(also: Researcher Reflexivity)

A research practice in which scholars continuously examine how their own identities, positions, assumptions, disciplinary training, and power relationships shape the research they conduct — the questions they ask, the methods they choose, the participants they recruit, and the…

Semi-structured Interview(also: Semi-structured Interviewing)

A semi-structured interview is a qualitative research method in which the interviewer works from a guide of open-ended topics or questions but adapts the order, wording, and depth of probing to the flow of each conversation. It sits between a rigid structured interview (fixed…

25 results.