Glossary
Terms used in accessibility research and practice. Each entry has a definition, common aliases, and category tags.
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- Voice-Assisted Technology(also: VAT, Voice-Activated Technology)
- Technology that uses voice recognition and natural language processing to enable users to interact with devices, applications, and services through spoken commands. Voice-assisted technology encompasses smart speakers, virtual assistants on phones, and voice-enabled appliances.…
- Voice-First Design(also: Voice-First Interface, Audio-First Design)
- A design approach for applications and interfaces where voice is the primary input and output modality, with visual elements being secondary or absent. Voice-first design is particularly relevant for accessibility tools serving visually impaired users, where the entire user…
- Voice-activated personal assistant(also: VAPA, Smart assistant, Virtual assistant)
- An AI-powered software agent that responds to voice commands to perform tasks such as answering questions, controlling smart home devices, managing schedules, and reading content aloud. For people with visual impairments, VAPAs like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Siri…
- Voice-to-Text(also: Voice Typing, Dictation, Voice Input)
- Technology that converts spoken language into written text, enabling users to compose text by speaking rather than typing. Voice-to-text is an important accessibility tool for people with motor disabilities affecting manual dexterity, repetitive strain injuries, or temporary…
- VoiceOver
- The built-in screen reader provided by Apple across macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS. VoiceOver is notable for being deeply integrated into the operating system rather than being a separate application, which gives it direct access to the accessibility APIs of native…
- VoiceXML(also: Voice Extensible Markup Language, VXML)
- VoiceXML (Voice Extensible Markup Language) is a W3C standard markup language for creating voice-based user interfaces, particularly interactive voice response (IVR) systems and voice browsers. VoiceXML allows developers to define dialogs between a user and a system using…
- Voicemark(also: Voice Bookmark, Audio Bookmark)
- A navigable audio marker or bookmark that allows users to quickly locate and access specific sections of web content or documents through speech or keyboard interaction. Voicemarks are created by analyzing and labeling content segments, then storing these labeled references in a…
- VoxLens
- An open-source JavaScript plug-in developed at the University of Washington that improves the accessibility of online data visualizations for screen-reader users through a multimodal approach. VoxLens provides three interaction modes: a Question-and-Answer mode where users can…