Glossary

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Multimodal Large Language Model(also: MLLM, Vision-Language Model, VLM)

A deep learning model that can process and generate content across multiple types of input including text, images, audio, and video. In accessibility contexts, MLLMs like GPT-4o, Gemini, and Claude have become transformative tools for blind and low vision users, enabling…

Multimodal Map(also: Audio-Tactile Map, Interactive Tactile Map)

A map that conveys spatial information through multiple sensory channels simultaneously, typically combining tactile elements with audio output and sometimes visual or haptic feedback. Multimodal maps are designed to make geographic and spatial information accessible to people…

Multimodal Output(also: Multi-Modal Output, Cross-Modal Output)

The simultaneous presentation of information through multiple sensory channels or formats, such as audio, visual, tactile, and text-to-speech, allowing users to choose the modality or combination of modalities that best suits their abilities and preferences. In accessible…

Multimodal Text Editing(also: Multimodal Editing)

A text editing approach that combines multiple input modalities—such as gestures, voice commands, and touch—to enable more efficient and accessible text correction. For users with disabilities, multimodal editing can reduce reliance on any single input method, allowing each…

Multiple Disabilities(also: Multi-impairment, Multiple Impairments, Combined Disabilities)

The presence of two or more disabilities in the same individual, such as combined motor and visual impairments, or deafblindness. People with multiple disabilities often face compounded accessibility barriers because assistive technologies and accessibility features are…

Multiple Impairments(also: Multiple Disabilities, Complex Disabilities, Co-occurring Impairments)

The presence of two or more concurrent impairments — such as sensory, cognitive, physical, or neurological — in a single individual that together create complex accessibility needs not adequately addressed by solutions designed for any single impairment alone. Research shows…

Multisensory Interface(also: Multimodal Interface, Multi-Sensory Feedback)

An interface that communicates information through multiple sensory channels simultaneously, such as visual, auditory, and tactile (haptic) feedback. Multisensory interfaces are particularly valuable in accessibility because they reduce dependence on any single sense, allowing…

Multitouch Surface(also: Multi-Touch Interface, Multitouch Interface, MTS)

A multitouch surface is an input device that uses optical or capacitive sensors to detect and track multiple simultaneous finger contacts on a flat surface. Unlike conventional touchpads that rely on a single finger for functionality, multitouch surfaces can recognize complex…

Muscle Contraction(also: Voluntary Muscle Activation)

The deliberate tensing of a muscle group that generates an electrical signal (electromyographic or EMG signal) detectable by surface electrodes. In assistive technology, intentional muscle contractions serve as input signals for controlling devices when traditional input methods…

Muscle-Computer Interface(also: MCI (Muscle-Computer Interface), EMG Interface)

An input modality in which signals generated by muscle contractions — typically recorded via surface electromyography (sEMG) sensors worn on the forearm or other muscle group — are interpreted by a computer to recognise discrete gestures or continuous control signals. Coined by…

Music Braille(also: Braille Music, Braille Music Notation)

A tactile music notation system that uses combinations of braille dots to represent musical elements including pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo markings, and other performance instructions. Music braille allows blind and low-vision musicians to read musical scores through touch.…

Music Haptics(also: Musical Haptics, Haptic Music)

The use of touch-based feedback — including vibrations, textures, and force — to convey musical information such as pitch, tempo, timbre, articulation, dynamics, and rhythm. Music haptics draws on the fact that haptic receptors in the skin, muscles, and joints naturally relay…

Music Notation(also: Musical Notation, Sheet Music)

A system of written symbols used to represent musical sounds, including pitch, rhythm, dynamics, and other performance instructions. Standard visual music notation uses staff lines, notes, and other graphical symbols that are inherently visual. For blind and visually impaired…

Music Visualisation(also: Music Visualization, Sound Visualisation, Audio Visualisation)

The representation of musical or audio content through visual media such as drawings, animations, colour changes, or motion graphics. Music visualisation is an important accessibility strategy for deaf and hearing-impaired people, enabling them to perceive and engage with…

Mutual Support(also: Mutual support in HRI, Mutual assistance)

In accessibility and human-robot interaction research, a framing that moves beyond one-way robot-supports-user or user-supervises-robot models toward a bidirectional relationship in which each party compensates for the other's limitations. For a blind user travelling with an…

Myo Armband(also: Thalmic Myo)

A commercially available wearable gesture-recognition armband released by Thalmic Labs in 2014 and discontinued in 2018, containing eight dry sEMG electrodes sampling at 200 Hz plus a 9-axis IMU. Despite its discontinuation, the Myo remains widely used in accessibility and HCI…

Myoelectric Control

The use of electromyographic (EMG) signals from voluntary muscle contractions as control inputs for external devices, most commonly powered upper-limb prostheses but also exoskeletons, wheelchairs, and general computer input. Traditional myoelectric control uses direct mappings…