Glossary
Terms used in accessibility research and practice. Each entry has a definition, common aliases, and category tags.
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- Marginalized Communities(also: Marginalized Populations)
- Groups of people who are systematically excluded from full participation in society due to factors such as disability, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, immigration status, or other characteristics. In accessibility research, understanding…
- Medical Model of Disability(also: Medical Model, Deficit Model)
- The medical model of disability is a framework that views disability primarily as a problem located within the individual, a biological deficit or impairment that needs to be fixed, cured, or compensated for through medical intervention or assistive technology. Under this model,…
- Medical Model of Disability(also: medical model, individual model of disability)
- A framework that views disability as a problem located within the individual, caused by disease, injury, or health condition, that requires medical intervention or rehabilitation to "fix" the person. Under this model, disabilities are deficits to be cured or managed. The medical…
- Misfit
- A concept from disability-studies scholar Rosemarie Garland-Thomson describing 'an incongruent relationship between two things' - the material mismatch between a body and an environment not built for it. Rather than locating disability in the individual, the misfit frames…
- Moral Model of Disability(also: Religious Model of Disability)
- A historical framework that attributes disability to moral failing, divine punishment, or supernatural causes such as curses or sins. Under this model, disability is viewed as a consequence of wrongdoing by the individual or their family, leading to shame, social exclusion, and…
- Multiply Marginalized(also: Multiply Marginalised, Multiply Marginalized Disabled People)
- A term used in disability justice and intersectional scholarship to describe people whose lived experience sits at the intersection of multiple marginalised identities — for example, disabled people who are also Black, queer, poor, immigrant, or women. Centring multiply…
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