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Glossary

Terms used in accessibility research and practice. Each entry has a definition, common aliases, and category tags.

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Acoustic Accessibility(also: Sound Accessibility)
An emerging framing of accessibility that considers a user's full acoustic environment - which sounds reach them, how loud, and in what mix - as a design surface to be adapted to individual sensory needs rather than treated as fixed background. While hearing accessibility has…
Active Noise Cancellation(also: ANC, Active Noise Control)
A technique that reduces unwanted ambient sound by using microphones to capture incoming noise and electronically generating an inverted (anti-phase) audio signal that destructively interferes with it, lowering the perceived noise reaching the listener's ear. ANC is the core…
Assistive Listening Device(also: ALD, Hearing Assistive Technology)
Any device designed to improve audibility for a person with hearing loss, beyond or in addition to a hearing aid or cochlear implant. Common examples include personal amplifiers, FM and radio-frequency systems, infrared systems, and induction loop (hearing loop) systems…
Audio-Video Synchrony(also: AV Sync, Lip Sync, Audio-Video Synchronization)
The temporal alignment between audio and video streams in multimedia content or real-time communication. When audio and video are not properly synchronized, the mismatch can significantly impair speech understanding for people with hearing loss who rely on lipreading to…
Aural Diversity(also: Hearing diversity)
A framework that recognizes the wide variation in how humans perceive and engage with sound, rather than treating typical hearing as the norm against which all other experiences are measured. Aural diversity spans d/Deaf, Hard of Hearing, hyperacusis, tinnitus, misophonia,…

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