Glossary
Terms used in accessibility research and practice. Each entry has a definition, common aliases, and category tags.
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- Digital by Default(also: Digital-first, Digital-only)
- A public-sector service design strategy, formalised in the UK from 2012, that treats online channels as the primary (and often sole) means of accessing government services, with phone and in-person support positioned as exceptional fallbacks. While framed as delivering…
- Hostile Design(also: Hostile architecture, Deterrent design)
- A design orientation in which systems — physical, digital, or bureaucratic — are intentionally configured to deter use, discourage certain populations, or reduce uptake, rather than to enable access. Originally applied to urban features like anti-homeless benches and spikes, the…
- Robodebt(also: Online Compliance Intervention)
- An automated debt-recovery scheme run by Services Australia (Centrelink) from 2016 to 2020, which used income-averaging algorithms to calculate alleged welfare overpayments and issue hundreds of thousands of debt notices without human review. A Royal Commission in 2023 found the…
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