Glossary
Terms used in accessibility research and practice. Each entry has a definition, common aliases, and category tags.
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- Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder(also: FASD, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, FAS)
- A group of conditions that can occur in a person whose mother consumed alcohol during pregnancy. Effects can include physical, behavioral, and learning problems, with a wide range of severity. FASD is relevant to digital accessibility because individuals may experience cognitive…
- Fibromyalgia(also: FM, Fibromyalgia syndrome)
- Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and cognitive difficulties often called "fibro fog." It affects approximately 2-4% of the population, predominantly women, and is considered an invisible disability…
- Financial Literacy
- The knowledge and skills needed to make informed decisions about money — including understanding income, expenses, saving, debt, interest, credit, taxes, insurance, and benefits programs. For accessibility, financial literacy intersects with numeracy, reading accessibility, and…
- Fixation Duration(also: Fixation Time, Gaze Duration)
- The length of time the eye remains relatively still on a specific point in a visual display during reading or visual processing. In eye-tracking research, fixation duration is a key metric for measuring cognitive processing load and readability — shorter fixations are associated…
- Fixation Problem(also: Reading Fixation Difficulty, Visual Fixation Issue)
- A difficulty in maintaining stable visual focus on a specific point or line of text during reading. People with fixation problems may lose their place frequently, skip lines, or re-read the same passage unintentionally. This is a common challenge for dyslexic readers and can be…
- Flat Affect(also: Blunted Affect, Reduced Expressiveness)
- Flat affect refers to a significant reduction in the outward expression of emotions, where a person shows little or no visible emotional response through facial expressions, voice tone, or body language. In the context of accessibility and neurodiversity, flat affect is commonly…
- Flesch Reading Ease(also: Flesch Readability Score, Flesch Score, FRE)
- A readability formula developed by Rudolf Flesch in 1948 that rates text on a 100-point scale based on average sentence length and average number of syllables per word. Higher scores indicate easier-to-read text: scores of 60-70 are considered suitable for a general audience,…
- Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level(also: Flesch-Kincaid, FKGL, Flesch-Kincaid readability)
- A readability formula that estimates the U.S. school grade level required to comfortably read a given English text, based on average sentence length and average syllables per word. Developed for the U.S. Navy in 1975 by Rudolf Flesch and J. Peter Kincaid, the formula is widely…
- Fluid intelligence(also: Fluid reasoning, Gf)
- The cognitive ability to reason, solve novel problems, and identify patterns without relying on previously acquired knowledge or skills. Fluid intelligence typically declines with age and is commonly measured through tasks involving pattern recognition, inductive reasoning, and…
- Formulaic Language(also: Formulaic Speech, Routine Language)
- Pre-established, conventionalised phrases and expressions that occur predictably in specific social or transactional contexts, such as greetings, service transactions, or ceremonial speech. In accessibility and communication technology, the formulaic nature of certain…
- Functional Cognitive Disability(also: Functional Cognitive Limitation)
- An approach to categorizing cognitive disabilities based on the functional limitations they produce rather than clinical diagnoses. Categories typically include difficulties with memory, problem-solving, attention, reading and verbal comprehension, math comprehension, and visual…
- Functional Illiteracy(also: Low Literacy, Limited Literacy)
- A condition in which a person has basic reading and writing skills but cannot effectively understand or use written text for everyday tasks such as reading instructions, filling out forms, or comprehending web content beyond simple sentences. UNESCO defines functional illiteracy…
- Functional Literacy(also: Functional illiteracy)
- The level of reading and writing skill needed to handle everyday tasks — filling out forms, reading medication instructions, understanding a utility bill, using a web service. Adults below this threshold are described as functionally illiterate, which in the United States is…
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