Glossary

Search results

Self-adapting user interface(also: Adaptive user interface, Adaptive UI)

A user interface that dynamically modifies its presentation, interaction modalities, or behaviour in response to changing conditions such as user capabilities, environmental factors, device characteristics, or content requirements. Unlike adaptable interfaces (which users…

Semantic decomposition

An analysis method that models a system as a hierarchy of ontological dependencies based on meaning and conceptual relationships, rather than breaking it down by functional tasks. In user interface design, semantic decomposition contrasts with traditional task-based…

Sensory erasure(also: Sensory exclusion)

The systematic marginalization or elimination of non-visual sensory modalities in the design of technologies, interfaces, and information systems. Sensory erasure occurs when platforms treat visual interaction as the only legitimate or primary mode of engagement, rendering…

Signer Placement(also: Interpreter Placement)

The spatial positioning of a sign language interpreter or signing instructor relative to instructional content in a video, videoconference, or immersive environment. Common arrangements include a side or corner window (typical in broadcast and videoconferencing), parallel…

Small Multiples

A series of similar graphics or charts arranged in a grid or sequence, each showing a different frame, condition, or time point, used to illustrate change or comparison. In tactile graphics, small multiples are the traditional method of representing movement or temporal change —…

Socio-Technical Aspirations

Individual- or community-driven ambition and desire to own or use a specific technology for personal benefit or societal acceptance or both. This concept, introduced by Sharma et al. (2020) as an extension to frameworks for assistive technology design, captures how technology…

Soma design(also: Somaesthetic design)

A design approach rooted in somaesthetics that foregrounds the sensing, feeling, living body as both the subject and medium of design. Soma design attends to the full range of bodily experience — touch, proprioception, movement, temperature, tension — rather than privileging…

Sonic design space(also: Auditory design space)

The physical medium related to human hearing through which a user and device may interact. The sonic design space encompasses speech (both natural and synthesised), non-speech audio such as earcons and sonification, music, and environmental sounds. For many users of assistive…

Sonification(also: Auditory display, Data sonification)

The use of non-speech audio to represent information, data, or environmental characteristics. In accessibility, sonification provides an alternative or complement to visual displays, encoding spatial, quantitative, or categorical information as sound properties such as pitch,…

Sound Design(also: Audio Design)

The craft of creating, selecting, and arranging audio elements - dialogue, music, ambient sound, foley, and effects - to shape the experience of a film, game, broadcast, or interactive product. For accessibility, sound design is doubly important: it carries narrative and…

Spatial substrate

A framework describing the orientation and positioning of information within a design space, using axes and a coordinate system appropriate to how a user perceives content in that space. In the visual design space, a spatial substrate is typically a two-dimensional plane (a…

Stakeholder Research(also: Stakeholder Analysis, Stakeholder Involvement)

A research approach that identifies and engages all parties who have an interest in or are affected by a technology, product, or service. In accessibility research, stakeholder research involves consulting not just end users with disabilities but also family members, caregivers,…

12 results.