Glossary

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Single-Subject Case Study(also: Single-Case Design, N-of-1 Study, Single-Subject Research Design)

A single-subject case study is a research methodology that focuses on detailed observation and analysis of one individual (or a small number of individuals) over time, rather than comparing group averages. Widely used in brain injury rehabilitation and clinical practice, this…

Situated action(also: Situated cognition, Situated practice)

A theoretical framework from sociology and HCI holding that human actions and decisions are fundamentally shaped by the specific social, material, and temporal context in which they occur, rather than being pre-planned or rule-following. In explainable AI design, situated action…

Skin Conductance(also: SC, Skin Conductance Response, SCR)

A measure of the electrical conductance of the skin, which increases with sweat gland activity. Skin conductance is commonly used as an index of emotional arousal or sympathetic nervous system activation. In accessibility contexts, wearable sensors measuring skin conductance can…

Social Desirability Bias(also: Impression Management)

A type of response bias in which research participants answer questions in a way that presents themselves favorably rather than truthfully, either to project a positive self-image or to avoid judgment from the researcher. In accessibility research, social desirability bias can…

Social Desirability Bias(also: Impression Management)

A type of response bias where participants answer questions in a manner they believe will be viewed favorably by others rather than responding truthfully. In accessibility research contexts, this can manifest when participants with disabilities provide positive ratings to appear…

Socio-Gerontechnology

A theoretical framework, developed by Alexander Peine and Louis Neven, that analyses aging and technology as mutually constitutive: technologies do not simply serve pre-existing aging needs, and aging is not a pre-given biological fact — the two co-produce each other through…

Socio-Technical Aspirations

Individual- or community-driven ambition and desire to own or use a specific technology for personal benefit or societal acceptance or both. This concept, introduced by Sharma et al. (2020) as an extension to frameworks for assistive technology design, captures how technology…

Socio-Technical Grounded Theory(also: STGT)

Socio-Technical Grounded Theory (STGT) is a qualitative research methodology adapted from classical Grounded Theory for studying technology within its social and organisational context. It extends the original constant comparison and theoretical sampling principles of Grounded…

Speaking Behavior(also: Speaker Behavior, Speech Behavior)

In accessibility and HCI research, the observable communicative behaviors a speaker exhibits during conversation — including speech rate, voice intensity (loudness), articulation clarity (including hyperarticulation or over-enunciation), eye contact, gesturing, and pausing.…

Spearman correlation(also: Spearman rank correlation, Spearman's rho)

A non-parametric statistical measure of the strength and direction of the monotonic relationship between two ranked variables, ranging from -1 to +1. In accessibility evaluation research, Spearman correlation is used to assess how well automated metrics (such as Word Error Rate…

Stakeholder Research(also: Stakeholder Analysis, Stakeholder Involvement)

A research approach that identifies and engages all parties who have an interest in or are affected by a technology, product, or service. In accessibility research, stakeholder research involves consulting not just end users with disabilities but also family members, caregivers,…

Symbolic Interactionism(also: SI)

A sociological tradition, associated with Herbert Blumer and the Chicago School following George Herbert Mead, that understands social reality as constructed through ongoing interaction: people act toward things — including other people, technologies, and disability itself — on…

System Usability Scale(also: SUS)

A widely used 10-item Likert scale questionnaire developed by John Brooke in 1996 that provides a quick, reliable measure of perceived usability. Scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better usability. The SUS has been validated across thousands of studies,…

System Usability Scale(also: SUS)

A widely used, standardized questionnaire consisting of 10 items that measures perceived usability of a system. Developed by John Brooke in 1986, SUS provides a "quick and dirty" reliable measure of usability. Each item uses a 5-point Likert scale, and the final score ranges…

Systematic Review(also: Systematic Literature Review)

A systematic review is a rigorous, reproducible synthesis of research on a narrowly-defined question, using a pre-registered protocol, exhaustive database search, explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria, independent dual screening, formal quality appraisal, and - where…

Theory of Change(also: ToC, Logic Model)

An explicit articulation of how and why a planned intervention is expected to produce its intended outcomes - typically expressed as a chain linking inputs to activities, outputs, short- and long-term outcomes, and the assumptions connecting each step. A theory of change makes…

Usage analytics(also: Telemetry, Interaction logging)

The collection and analysis of data about how users interact with a technology system in real-world settings, including session duration, feature usage frequency, settings preferences, and interaction patterns over time. In assistive technology research, large-scale usage…

Vignette Study(also: Vignette-Based Method, Vignette)

A research method in which participants are presented with short, carefully constructed scenarios describing hypothetical or realistic social situations, then asked to make judgments about appropriateness, fairness, emotional impact, or likely outcomes. Vignettes are widely used…

Wide-Range Achievement Test(also: WRAT, WRAT-5, WRAT sentence comprehension)

A standardised achievement test used to measure basic academic skills, including word reading, sentence comprehension, spelling, and math computation. In accessibility research, the WRAT sentence-comprehension sub-test has been validated as a measure of English literacy for Deaf…

Within-Subjects Design(also: Repeated Measures Design, Crossover Design)

A research methodology in which the same participants are exposed to all conditions or treatments being compared, with each participant serving as their own control. In accessibility research, within-subjects designs are valuable for comparing assistive technologies or interface…

Wizard-of-Oz Study(also: WOz Study, Wizard of Oz Method, WOz Technique)

A research methodology in human-computer interaction where participants believe they are interacting with an autonomous system, but a hidden human operator (the "wizard") is actually controlling some or all of the system's responses. This technique allows researchers to evaluate…