Glossary

Search results

Data Protection(also: Data Privacy)

The practices, policies, and legal frameworks governing how personal information is collected, stored, processed, and shared by organizations. For assistive technology companies, data protection is especially critical because their products often collect intimate details about…

Deinstitutionalisation(also: Deinstitutionalization)

The process of transitioning people with disabilities — particularly intellectual disabilities and mental health conditions — from large, segregated residential institutions into community-based living arrangements with appropriate support services. Beginning in Scandinavian…

Deinstitutionalization

The process of transitioning disabled people from large, segregated residential institutions to community-based living settings, along with the development of community support services. In the United States, deinstitutionalization gained momentum in the 1950s and 1960s driven…

Design Justice

A framework that centers the perspectives of people who are most impacted by design decisions, ensuring that design processes, practices, and outcomes distribute benefits and burdens equitably. Coined by Sasha Costanza-Chock, design justice challenges traditional design power…

Design for User Empowerment(also: DfUE, Empowerment-Oriented Design)

A design philosophy that prioritizes giving users — particularly people with disabilities — the skills, tools, and agency to create, modify, and customize their own technology solutions rather than being passive recipients of products designed for them. Design for User…

Dignity of risk(also: Right to risk)

A disability rights principle, articulated by Robert Perske in 1972, asserting that people with disabilities have the right to make self-directed choices that involve risk, including the freedom to fail and learn from experience. In technology contexts, the dignity of risk…

Disability Disclosure(also: Self-Disclosure, Disability Identity Disclosure)

The act of revealing one's disability status to others, including employers, educators, peers, or service providers. Disability disclosure is a complex, strategic decision influenced by stigma, fear of negative perception, institutional culture, and the nature of the disability…

Disability Employment Gap(also: Employment Disparity)

The significant difference in employment rates between people with and without disabilities. Statistics consistently show that people with disabilities are employed at roughly half the rate of non-disabled people — for example, 34.4% versus 75.4% in the United States (2015…

Disability Identity

The ways in which individuals understand, relate to, and incorporate disability into their sense of self. Disability identity is shaped by personal experience, cultural context, community belonging, and social attitudes toward disability. People with temporary, episodic, or…

Disability Intimacy(also: Crip Intimacy, Disabled Intimacy)

The multifaceted experiences of intimacy as lived by disabled people, encompassing not only sexuality and romantic relationships but also emotional well-being, support networks, interpersonal trust, family planning, self-connection, communication in relationships, and bodily…

Disability Justice(also: DJ)

A framework developed by disabled queer and trans people of color — including Patty Berne, Mia Mingus, Stacey Milbern, Eli Clare, and Leroy Moore through Sins Invalid — that recognizes disability as intersecting with race, class, gender, sexuality, and other axes of oppression.…

Disability Pride(also: Disability Identity Pride)

The acknowledgment and embracing of disability as a valued part of personal identity rather than something to hide, overcome, or be ashamed of. Disability Pride is rooted in the social model of disability, which locates barriers in society rather than in individuals. In…

Disability Rights(also: Disability Justice, Disability Advocacy)

The movement and legal framework advocating for equal rights, opportunities, and full participation of people with disabilities in society. Key legislation includes the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD),…

Disability Rights in the Global South(also: Southern Disability Rights, Disability Justice Global South)

The movement and body of scholarship focused on the rights, inclusion, and empowerment of people with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries, where disability intersects with poverty, limited healthcare access, cultural stigma, and inadequate legal protections. While…

Disability Stereotyping(also: Disability Stereotype, Ableist Stereotyping)

The attribution of fixed, oversimplified characteristics to individuals based on their disability status. In the context of AI and language models, disability stereotyping occurs when systems associate specific disabilities with particular traits — for example, linking autism…

Disability Stigma(also: Stigma, Disability-Related Stigma)

Negative attitudes, stereotypes, prejudice, and discriminatory behavior directed toward people with disabilities. Disability stigma can lead to social exclusion, reduced opportunities, and internalized shame. In many contexts, particularly in parts of the Global South,…

Disability culture(also: Crip culture)

A cultural movement and identity framework that celebrates the diversity disability brings, recognizing the positive aspects of the disability experience — community, solidarity, creativity, and unique ways of knowing. Emerging in the late 1980s through the work of activists…

Disability pride

A positive affirmation of disability identity that rejects shame, pity, and the desire to be "fixed" or "cured." Disability pride is a core element of disability culture, rooted in the belief that disabled people will not be integrated into society as long as they are trying to…

Disability-Led Design(also: Disability-Led)

A design practice in which people with disabilities are not consultants, test subjects, or "users" but the authors, directors, and decision-makers shaping the work. Disability-led projects invert the typical power dynamic of accessibility research: non-disabled researchers and…

Disability-Led Research(also: Disabled-Led Research, Disability-Centered Research)

Research that is conceived, designed, conducted, and interpreted by disabled people rather than about them by non-disabled researchers. Disability-led research recognizes that disabled people hold unique expertise about their own experiences, needs, and solutions that cannot be…

Disability-first Design(also: Disability-first Approach, Disability-centered Design)

A design and research methodology that positions disabled people as active contributors and decision-makers rather than passive subjects or end-users in technology development. In contrast to approaches where non-disabled researchers create solutions for disabled users,…

Disabled Joy(also: Disability Joy, Crip Joy)

Disabled joy refers to the positive experiences, pleasures, and sources of happiness that arise from or are connected to living as a disabled person. This includes pride in disability identity, the richness of disability community and culture, the creativity born of adapting to…

Disablism(also: Disability Discrimination)

Discriminatory, oppressive, or abusive behaviour directed at people because of their disability, encompassing both individual acts of prejudice and systemic societal barriers. Coined by the Union of Physically Impaired Against Segregation in 1975, the term draws a parallel with…

Diversity Equity and Inclusion(also: DEI, Equity Diversity and Inclusion, EDI)

An organizational framework and set of practices that recognizes, values, and actively supports the full participation of people from diverse backgrounds, including people with disabilities. Diversity refers to the presence of differences (disability, race, gender, culture,…

24 results.