Glossary

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Access Differential(also: Accessibility Gap, Access Gap)

Access differential is the gap between the access that nondisabled people experience and the access that people with disabilities experience when using the same technologies, services, or environments. Unlike a binary view of accessibility (accessible or not), access…

Accessibility-in-Use(also: Accessibility in Use)

A concept describing how well accessibility metrics predict the actual effects that real accessibility problems will have on the quality of interaction as perceived by real users when interacting with real pages for achieving real goals. Unlike traditional conformance testing…

Communicational Accessibility(also: Communicative Accessibility)

An approach to accessible design that goes beyond providing access to raw content (content accessibility) to preserving the designer's intended communicative strategy across all modalities and for all users. Where content accessibility asks "can the user access the…

Critical Technical Practice(also: CTP)

A research stance, articulated by Philip Agre in 1997, in which technologists reflect critically on the assumptions built into their own systems while continuing to build. Critical technical practice argues that technologies embody theory—every design choice encodes a…

Crosscutting Concern(also: Cross-Cutting Concern)

In software engineering, a crosscutting concern is a requirement or feature that affects multiple modules of a system and cannot be cleanly decomposed into a single component. Accessibility is a classic crosscutting concern because requirements like providing text alternatives,…

Dynamic Disability(also: Fluctuating Disability, Variable Disability)

A disability or impairment whose severity, manifestation, or impact varies over time — sometimes rapidly — rather than remaining constant. Dynamic disabilities are common in many health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, Parkinson's Disease, multiple sclerosis, and…

Editorial Enunciation(also: Visual Enunciation)

A semiotic concept describing how the visual layout and organisation of an interface communicates meaning beyond the content it contains. Editorial enunciation encompasses the spatial arrangement, sizing, positioning, and visual hierarchy of interface elements — all of which…

Flourishing(also: Developmental Flourishing, Human Flourishing)

An orientation in design and HCI that measures success not by task completion or outcome equivalence but by the extent to which a system supports individuals' subjective well-being, personal significance, agency, and ongoing development. The concept draws on positive psychology,…

Health-Related Impairment and Disability(also: HIID, Health-Related Impairments and Disabilities)

A category of impairments that arise as a consequence of health conditions, both chronic and acute, rather than from a traditionally defined disability. HIIDs are characterized by four properties: they are combinatorial (multiple low-intensity impairments that interact to create…

Implicit User(also: Model User, Implied User)

A concept from semiotic engineering describing the hypothetical user that a designer envisions when creating an interface — encompassing assumptions about the user's behaviour, experience, competence, expectations, and goals. Every interface carries an implicit user embedded in…

Inequitable Access(also: Inadequate Accommodation)

Inequitable access describes the situation where accommodations or accessibility measures are provided but fail to adequately address the underlying inaccessibility, leaving people with disabilities with access that is significantly inferior to what nondisabled people…

Phonocentrism

The ideological privileging of spoken language as the default and superior mode of communication, with corresponding devaluation of signed, typed, symbolic, or augmentative forms. In accessibility, phonocentrism surfaces when technologies (voice assistants, automatic speech…

Semiotic Engineering(also: Semiotics of HCI)

A theoretical framework developed by Clarisse Siqueira de Souza that views human-computer interaction as a form of designer-to-user communication mediated by the interface. In this model, the interface is not merely a tool but a message from designers to users, carrying an…

Situationally Induced Impairment(also: SIID, Situational Impairment, Situational Disability)

A temporary functional limitation caused by environmental or contextual factors rather than a permanent health condition or disability. Examples include difficulty using a phone while walking (reduced motor accuracy), inability to hear audio in a noisy environment, or screen…

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