Glossary

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ADHD(also: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, ADD)

A neurodevelopmental condition characterized by persistent patterns of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that affect executive function, including working memory, task initiation, sustained attention, and self-regulation. ADHD affects an estimated 3-6% of adults…

ADHD(also: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder)

A neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent patterns of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that interfere with functioning and development. ADHD affects working memory, executive function, and the ability to sustain attention on tasks. For digital…

ADHD Subtype(also: ADHD Presentation, ADHD Type)

A classification of ADHD based on the predominant symptom pattern experienced by an individual. The three recognized subtypes are: predominantly inattentive (difficulty sustaining attention, following through on tasks, and organizing activities), predominantly…

AI literacy(also: Artificial intelligence literacy, Algorithm literacy)

The knowledge, skills, and critical awareness needed to understand, evaluate, and effectively engage with artificial intelligence systems. For people with disabilities, AI literacy is particularly important because lack of understanding about how AI tools work — including their…

ARASAAC(also: Aragonese Portal of Augmentative and Alternative Communication)

A publicly funded open pictogram library maintained by the Government of Aragon, Spain, providing nearly 12,000 colour and black-and-white pictograms licensed under Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA). ARASAAC symbols are widely used worldwide in augmentative and alternative…

Abundant Design(also: Abundant UI Design)

A design approach for cognitively accessible interfaces in which primary actions are represented by multiple redundant cues — short text, an icon, a distinctive color, and ample size — so users can identify the control through whichever channel suits them. Contrasts with minimal…

Access Labor(also: Accommodation Labor, Disability Labor)

The uncompensated work that disabled people must perform to secure, maintain, and manage their own accessibility accommodations within systems not designed for them. Access labor includes navigating bureaucratic accommodation processes, self-advocating with institutions and…

Accessible Authentication(also: WCAG 3.3.7, Accessible Authentication (Minimum))

A web accessibility requirement introduced in WCAG 2.2 (Success Criterion 3.3.7) that mandates for each step in an authentication process relying on a cognitive function test — such as remembering a password, solving a puzzle, or transcribing distorted text — at least one…

Accessible eLearning(also: Accessible Online Learning, Inclusive eLearning)

Digital learning content and platforms designed to be usable by people with disabilities. For people with intellectual disabilities, accessible eLearning requires step-by-step approaches, visual demonstrations with audio narration, consistent layouts, familiar metaphors from…

Acquired Brain Injury(also: ABI)

Brain damage occurring after birth that is not hereditary, congenital, degenerative, or induced by birth trauma. ABI encompasses both traumatic brain injury (TBI) from external forces like falls or accidents, and non-traumatic causes such as stroke, anoxia, infection, or tumors.…

Active Support

A person-centred model of support that enables people with intellectual disabilities, including those with severe and profound disabilities, to participate meaningfully in everyday activities and relationships. Active support involves providing graded levels of assistance — from…

Activity Monitoring(also: Activity Recognition, Activity Tracking)

The use of sensors, algorithms, and computational models to automatically detect and track a person's actions and behaviours within an environment. In assistive technology contexts, activity monitoring enables smart home systems and cognitive orthoses to understand what a person…

Activity Pacing(also: Pacing, Energy pacing)

Activity pacing is a self-management strategy used by people with chronic conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome to manage limited energy and prevent symptom exacerbation. It involves planning and distributing physical and cognitive…

Activity schedule(also: Visual schedule, Picture schedule)

A visual support tool that breaks down tasks or routines into sequential steps represented by photographs, pictograms, or text, enabling individuals with autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, or cognitive impairments to independently follow procedures without…

Acts of Assistance

A framework for designing human-machine interactions in cognitive assistive systems, drawing on speech acts theory from linguistics. Each act of assistance is a structured communication from the system to the user, defined by its message type (such as recall, indicate, or…

Adapted Curriculum(also: Adapted Computer Curriculum, Modified Curriculum, Curriculum Adaptation)

An adapted curriculum is an educational programme that has been modified to accommodate the learning needs, styles, and abilities of students with disabilities while maintaining the core learning objectives of the standard curriculum. Adaptations may include one-on-one tutoring…

Adaptive Behavior(also: Adaptive Skills, Adaptive Functioning)

The collection of conceptual, social, and practical skills that people learn and perform in everyday life. Conceptual skills include language, literacy, and self-direction; social skills encompass interpersonal abilities and social responsibility; practical skills involve…

Adaptive Disclosure(also: On-Demand Disclosure, Progressive Disclosure for Accessibility)

An interface design pattern in which supplementary accessibility content — summaries, keyphrase previews, navigation maps, alternative descriptions — is revealed only when the user requests it rather than shown alongside the primary content at all times. Adaptive disclosure…

Adaptive Gameplay(also: Adaptive Difficulty, Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment)

A game design approach in which the system automatically adjusts difficulty, pacing, or content based on the player's real-time performance and behaviour. In accessibility and therapeutic contexts, adaptive gameplay is used to create personalized experiences for users with…

Adaptive content complexity(also: Layered descriptions, Tiered content)

A design strategy that provides the same information at multiple levels of detail or complexity, allowing users to access content appropriate to their cognitive processing capacity, prior knowledge, or current needs. For example, a system might offer simple, medium, and detailed…

Affective Engagement(also: Emotional Engagement)

The emotional connection and investment a user develops with a task, activity, or technology. In accessibility and therapeutic contexts, affective engagement goes beyond usability to encompass motivation, enjoyment, and emotional safety. Research shows that affective engagement…

Affective Lability(also: Mood Lability, Emotional Lability)

A pattern of rapid, unpredictable shifts in emotional state, often involving intense fluctuations between positive and negative moods with minimal external provocation. Affective lability is commonly associated with ADHD, bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder,…

Alexia(also: Acquired Dyslexia, Word Blindness)

An acquired inability to read that results from brain damage, typically from stroke or traumatic brain injury, as distinct from developmental dyslexia which is present from childhood. People with alexia may lose the ability to recognize written words despite retaining other…

Ambient Display(also: Ambient Interface, Peripheral Display)

A display or interface that communicates information through subtle environmental changes — such as colour shifts, lighting changes, or gentle sounds — that can be perceived at the periphery of a user's attention without demanding direct focus. In accessibility contexts, ambient…

Anomia(also: Word-finding difficulty, Anomic aphasia)

Anomia is a language impairment characterized by difficulty retrieving words during speech, particularly the names of objects, people, or actions. It is the most common symptom across all types of aphasia and can also occur as a standalone condition (anomic aphasia). In…

Anticipatory Grief(also: pre-death grief, anticipatory mourning)

Grief experienced before an expected loss, particularly common among caregivers of individuals with progressive neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. Anticipatory grief encompasses mourning not only of the anticipated death, but also of the ongoing losses…

Aphasia

A language disorder that affects a person's ability to communicate, including difficulties with speaking, understanding speech, reading, and writing. Aphasia typically results from brain injury, most commonly stroke, and its severity and specific manifestations vary widely. In…

Aphasia-Friendly(also: Aphasia-Accessible, Aphasia-Friendly Design)

A set of design practices for making written, spoken, and audiovisual content more accessible to people with aphasia. Established principles (Rose, Worrall, Hickson, Hoffmann) include short sentences with one idea per line, familiar everyday vocabulary, large sans-serif fonts…

Applied Behavioral Analysis(also: ABA, Behavioral Analysis, Behaviour Analysis)

Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) is a scientific approach to understanding and changing behavior through systematic observation, measurement, and evidence-based intervention. In accessibility and disability contexts, ABA principles — including positive reinforcement, prompting,…

Assistive Technology for Cognition(also: ATC, Cognitive Assistive Technology, Cognitive Prosthetics)

Technology designed to support cognitive functions such as memory, attention, planning, and problem-solving for people with cognitive impairments. This includes reminder apps, task prompting systems, navigation aids, and other tools that compensate for difficulties in…

Attention(also: Attentional processing, Selective attention)

The cognitive process of selectively focusing on relevant stimuli while filtering out competing information. Cognitive neuroscience typically decomposes attention into three networks: alerting (maintaining readiness to respond), orienting (shifting focus across space or sensory…

Attention Deficit(also: Attention Deficit Disorder, ADD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)

A cognitive condition characterised by difficulty sustaining focus, filtering distractions, and maintaining concentration on tasks. Attention deficits are common following traumatic brain injuries and are the defining feature of conditions such as ADD and ADHD. In accessibility,…

Attention Management(also: Attention Design)

Design strategies and techniques that help users direct, maintain, and recover attention while interacting with digital content. For users with ADHD, attention management in interface design includes minimizing distractions (reducing visual clutter, hiding non-essential…

Attention Network Test(also: ANT, ANT-I, ANT-Child)

A computer-administered cognitive task developed by Fan, Posner, and colleagues that measures three functionally distinct attention networks — alerting (sustained readiness), orienting (shifting attentional focus in space), and executive control (resolving conflict between…

Attention Restoration(also: Attention Restoration Theory, ART)

A theoretical framework proposing that directed attention is a finite cognitive resource that becomes depleted through effortful focus and is restored through exposure to environments or activities that engage "soft fascination" — such as natural settings, visuals with fractal…

Auditory Channel Conflict(also: Audio Channel Competition, Auditory Interference)

A situation where multiple audio streams compete for a user's attention through the same sensory channel, reducing comprehension and increasing cognitive load. For blind and visually impaired users who rely on screen readers, auditory channel conflict is a significant barrier in…

Auditory Comprehension(also: Listening Comprehension)

The cognitive and linguistic ability to understand spoken language in real time, including recognising words, parsing grammar, holding clauses in working memory, and integrating meaning across sentences. Frequently impaired in people living with aphasia, age-related hearing…

Auditory Filtering(also: Selective Listening, Cocktail Party Effect)

The neurological ability to selectively attend to specific sounds while suppressing or ignoring background noise. Many autistic individuals and people with sensory processing differences experience difficulties with auditory filtering, making it challenging to follow…

Auditory Perception(also: Auditory Processing)

The ability to interpret and make sense of sound information received through the ears, including distinguishing between similar sounds, recognizing patterns in rhythm and pitch, and processing the temporal characteristics of audio signals. Differences in auditory perception are…

Auditory processing disorder(also: APD, Central auditory processing disorder, CAPD)

A neurological condition in which the brain has difficulty interpreting and organizing sounds despite normal hearing ability. Unlike hearing loss, auditory processing disorder affects how the central auditory nervous system processes what is heard, making it difficult to…

Authentication(also: User Authentication, Login)

The process of verifying a user's identity before granting access to a system, service, or protected content. Common authentication methods include passwords, PINs, biometrics, and security tokens. Authentication presents significant accessibility barriers: people with cognitive…

Autism Spectrum Disorder(also: ASD, Autism)

A neurodevelopmental condition characterized by differences in social communication, sensory processing, and patterns of behavior and interests. Autism exists on a broad spectrum with highly variable presentations. In reading accessibility contexts, research has found that…

Autism Spectrum Disorder(also: ASD, Autism)

A neurodevelopmental condition characterized by differences in social communication, sensory processing, and patterns of behavior or interests. Autism exists on a spectrum, meaning it presents differently across individuals — some may have significant support needs while others…

Autism Spectrum Disorder(also: ASD, Autism, Autistic Spectrum Condition)

A neurodevelopmental condition characterized by differences in social communication and interaction, along with restricted or repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. Autism exists on a spectrum with widely varying support needs. Many autistic people experience…

Auto-Personalization(also: Automatic Personalization, Preference Portability)

The ability to automatically configure a digital device's interface, accessibility settings, and assistive technology software to match an individual user's needs and preferences without requiring the user to manually make changes. Auto-personalization addresses a critical…

Autofill(also: Form Autofill, Auto-fill)

A browser or operating-system feature that automatically populates form fields (name, address, email, payment details) from stored user data. From an accessibility standpoint, autofill reduces typing effort for users with motor impairments, cognitive disabilities, dyslexia, and…

Automated Readability Scoring(also: ARSS, Automated Readability Scoring System, Readability Assessment)

The use of computational methods to automatically evaluate the reading difficulty level of a text. Traditional readability formulas like Flesch-Kincaid and Dale-Chall use surface features such as average sentence length, word length, and vocabulary frequency to assign…

Automatic Readability Assessment(also: Readability Prediction, Reading Level Assessment)

The computational task of predicting how difficult a text is for a reader, usually expressed as a grade level or a readability score. Modern systems treat readability as a machine-learning classification or regression problem that combines shallow surface features (sentence…

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response(also: ASMR)

A sensory tingling experience, typically in the scalp and upper spine, triggered by specific audio–visual stimuli such as whispering, soft tapping, or gentle hand movements. ASMR is associated with reduced heart rate and is used by many people — including neurodivergent…

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