Glossary

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Segregated Education(also: Separate Schooling, Special Schooling)

An educational model where students with disabilities are educated in separate institutions or classrooms apart from their non-disabled peers. While segregated schools like residential schools for the blind can provide specialized instruction and peer support from other students…

Selective disclosure(also: Contextual disclosure, Situational disclosure)

The practice of revealing disability identity to specific people or in specific contexts while keeping it private in others, based on a continuous assessment of safety, trust, relevance, and potential consequences. Most people with invisible disabilities practice selective…

Self-Accommodation(also: Self-Accommodations)

Strategies and adaptations that individuals develop independently to manage disability-related challenges, without formal support systems or clinical intervention. Self-accommodations are particularly common among neurodivergent individuals who may not have access to formal…

Self-presentation(also: Impression management, Identity management)

The process by which individuals control how they are perceived by others, selecting which aspects of their identity to reveal, emphasise, or conceal in different social contexts. For people with invisible disabilities, self-presentation involves ongoing decisions about whether…

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…

Sighted Bias(also: Visual Bias, Ocularcentrism)

The tendency in technology design to privilege sighted ways of perceiving and understanding the world, often unconsciously centering visual sensibilities in interfaces, descriptions, and assessment criteria. In accessibility contexts, sighted bias manifests when designers create…

Sighted-Centric Design(also: Vision-Centric Design)

Design approaches and practices that privilege sighted sensemaking and marginalize blind and non-visual ways of relating to the world. Sighted-centered design produces technologies, interfaces, and descriptive standards that assume visual perception as the default mode of…

Situated Knowledge(also: Situated Knowledges)

A concept from feminist epistemology, developed by Donna Haraway, holding that all knowledge is produced from particular social, bodily, and historical positions rather than from a neutral, objective standpoint. In disability studies and accessibility research, situated…

Situational Disability(also: Situational Impairment, Contextual Disability)

A temporary limitation in ability caused by environmental or situational factors rather than a medical condition. Examples include being unable to hear audio in a noisy environment, having limited dexterity while carrying items, or experiencing reduced vision in bright sunlight.…

Social Accessibility

A design paradigm introduced by Shinohara and colleagues emphasizing that assistive technologies must be designed for the social worlds they will be used within, not just for functional task completion. Social accessibility recognizes that assistive technologies often have a…

Social Model of Disability

A framework originating in disability studies and activism that views disability not as an inherent deficit in an individual but as the result of social, environmental, and political barriers that exclude people with impairments from full participation. Introduced by Michael…

Social Model of Disability(also: social model, barriers model)

A framework that distinguishes between impairment (a physical, sensory, or cognitive difference) and disability (the social barriers and exclusion that result from society not accommodating that difference). Under this model, people are disabled by inaccessible environments,…

Social accessibility(also: Social model of access)

An approach to accessibility that recognises the role of social interactions, human help, and community practices in enabling access for people with disabilities, rather than focusing solely on technological or environmental modifications. Social accessibility encompasses…

Socially Recursive Inference(also: Social Recursion)

The cognitive process by which individuals' perceptions and behaviors are shaped by what they believe others think about them or their situation. In accessibility contexts, socially recursive inference manifests when AT users are influenced by what they think non-disabled people…

Socio-Technical Infrastructure(also: Sociotechnical System)

The interconnected combination of social structures (institutions, policies, norms, relationships) and technical systems (software, hardware, platforms) that together shape how people interact with technology and each other. In accessibility contexts, socio-technical…

Sociotechnical Identity

The aspect of personal identity that is constructed and expressed through the technologies a person uses. In assistive technology research, sociotechnical identity refers to how AT serves as a vehicle conveying both functional ability and social identity. The concept recognizes…

Special Education(also: Special Needs Education, SPED)

Educational programs, services, and instruction specifically designed to meet the unique needs of students with disabilities. Special education encompasses a range of settings from fully inclusive classrooms with support services to specialized separate schools. In India,…

Spoon Theory(also: Spoons)

A metaphor created by Christine Miserandino to explain the limited energy available to people living with chronic illness or disability. In this framework, each daily activity costs a certain number of "spoons" from a finite supply, and once spoons are depleted, the person…

Spoon theory(also: Spoons, Energy accounting)

A metaphor created by Christine Miserandino to explain the limited energy reserves experienced by people with chronic illness and disabilities. "Spoons" represent units of energy, and every activity — from getting dressed to attending a meeting — costs spoons. Once spoons are…

Stigma(also: Social stigma, Disability stigma)

A negative social perception or mark of disgrace associated with a particular attribute, condition, or circumstance. In disability and accessibility contexts, stigma refers to the social devaluation people experience when using assistive technologies or disclosing disabilities,…

Symbolic Interactionism(also: SI)

A sociological tradition, associated with Herbert Blumer and the Chicago School following George Herbert Mead, that understands social reality as constructed through ongoing interaction: people act toward things — including other people, technologies, and disability itself — on…

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