Glossary

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Participant-led research(also: User-led research)

A research methodology in which participants — particularly those from marginalized or underrepresented groups — take an active role in directing the research process, shaping study protocols, and determining what aspects of a system or experience are most important to…

Participatory Action Research(also: PAR, Action Research)

A collaborative research methodology that involves participants as co-researchers in identifying problems, designing solutions, and implementing changes. In accessibility research, PAR ensures people with disabilities actively shape study design, data collection, and analysis…

Participatory Design(also: PD, Co-Design Process)

A design approach originating in Scandinavian workplace democracy that involves end users as active, equal partners in the design process, not merely as research subjects or consultants. In accessibility, participatory design ensures that people with disabilities contribute…

Participatory Design(also: Co-Design, Cooperative Design, PD)

A design methodology that actively involves end users as partners in the design process rather than passive subjects of user testing. In accessibility contexts, participatory design is particularly important because failing to consider user opinions early in design is a major…

Participatory Design(also: PD, Cooperative Design, Scandinavian Design)

A design approach originating in Scandinavian workplace democracy movements that emphasizes the direct involvement of people in the design of technologies and systems that affect them. Participatory design treats users as experts in their own experiences and gives them genuine…

Person-Centred Care(also: Person-Centered Care, Person-Centred Approach)

An approach to care and support that places the individual — their preferences, needs, values, history, and identity — at the centre of all decisions and interactions, rather than focusing primarily on their diagnosis or deficits. Originated in dementia care through the work of…

Person-Centred Planning(also: Person-Centered Planning, PCP)

A combination of approaches designed to empower people with disabilities to make their own choices and decisions about the support they receive. In accessibility contexts, person-centred planning shifts control from service providers to the individual, recognizing that people…

Person-Technology Match(also: PTM, Matching Person and Technology)

A systematic approach to selecting assistive technology by evaluating the fit between a person's specific abilities, needs, preferences, and environment and the features and demands of available technologies. The person-technology match process recognizes that the most…

Persona(also: User Persona, Design Persona)

A fictional but research-based representation of a user group that captures key characteristics, goals, motivations, and needs. In accessibility work, personas are used to represent the diverse experiences and requirements of disabled users, helping design teams maintain empathy…

Persona(also: User Persona, Design Persona)

A fictional character created to represent a type of user who might interact with a product, service, or website. Personas are grounded in research data and typically include details such as name, age, occupation, abilities, goals, frustrations, and technology usage patterns. In…

Persona Design(also: Design Personas, User Personas)

A user-centered design technique in which designers create fictional but grounded profiles of representative users — demographics, goals, context, pain points — to guide design decisions when direct user involvement is limited. In accessibility and HCI co-design workshops,…

Personalization(also: User Personalization, Interface Personalization)

The adaptation of digital content, interfaces, or experiences to individual user preferences, needs, and contexts. In accessibility, personalization is essential because people with the same type of disability may have very different needs and preferences — for example, some…

Personalized Learning(also: Adaptive Learning, Individualized Instruction, Differentiated Instruction)

Personalized learning is an educational approach that tailors content, pace, and delivery method to each learner's individual needs, preferences, and abilities. In accessibility contexts, personalization goes beyond selecting appropriate difficulty levels — it requires creating…

Personalized accessibility(also: Customizable accessibility, Adaptive accessibility)

An approach to accessibility that allows users to configure assistive features according to their individual needs, preferences, and abilities rather than providing a single fixed accommodation. Personalized accessibility recognizes that disabilities — particularly conditions…

Pervasive Accessible Technology(also: PAT)

A strategy for integrating accessibility directly into information technology infrastructure rather than retrofitting it after the fact. Proposed by Michael Paciello in 1996, Pervasive Accessible Technology combines a Standard Human Interface with an Accessible Information…

Player balancing(also: Dynamic difficulty adjustment, Skill balancing)

A game design technique that provides in-game advantages to lower-performing players, reducing performance disparities between competitors of different ability levels. In the context of accessibility, player balancing through skill assistance — such as aim correction in shooting…

Pluggable User Interface(also: Pluggable UI, Alternative User Interface)

A pluggable user interface is an interchangeable interface component that can be swapped in or out of an application without changing the application's core functionality. In the Universal Remote Console (URC) framework, pluggable user interfaces connect to an abstract "user…

Positive Design(also: Design for Subjective Well-Being)

A design framework, articulated by Desmet and Pohlmeyer, that explicitly targets human flourishing by attending to three components of subjective well-being: pleasure (positive affect in the moment), personal significance (pursuit of meaningful goals), and virtue (acting in line…

Prior Knowledge(also: Background Knowledge, Existing Knowledge)

Information and experience a user brings to a technology interaction before it begins, including technical knowledge of how devices work, functional knowledge of task goals, strategic knowledge of problem-solving approaches, and self-knowledge of personal abilities and…

Privacy by Default(also: Privacy by Design, Default Privacy Settings)

Privacy by default is a design principle requiring that systems automatically protect user privacy without requiring users to take action. In accessibility contexts, this principle is particularly important for older adults and people with cognitive disabilities who may not…

Privacy by Design(also: PbD)

A framework that embeds privacy protections into the design and architecture of systems and business practices from the outset, rather than adding them as afterthoughts. In the context of visual assistance technologies, privacy by design encompasses on-device processing, data…

Problem-Solving Style(also: Problem-Solving Facets, GenderMag Facets)

Problem-solving style refers to the characteristic ways individuals approach technology-mediated problem-solving tasks. In inclusive design, particularly in the GenderMag method, problem-solving style is captured across five facets: Motivations (why someone uses technology),…

Progressive Disability(also: Degenerative Condition, Progressive Condition)

A disability or condition that worsens over time, requiring adaptive strategies and technologies that can evolve with changing abilities. Progressive disabilities such as dementia, multiple sclerosis, and muscular dystrophy pose unique design challenges because assistive…

Prototyping(also: Prototype)

The iterative creation of tangible, interactive representations of a design - ranging from paper sketches and cardboard mock-ups to functional software builds - used to explore ideas, elicit feedback, and test assumptions before committing to a final product. In accessibility…

Proxy stakeholder(also: Proxy informant, Proxy respondent)

In requirements engineering and participatory design, a proxy stakeholder is a person—such as a caregiver, support worker, family member, or healthcare professional—who actively mediates, interprets, and scaffolds technology use on behalf of a primary user who faces barriers to…

Psychological Accessibility

A dimension of accessibility concerned with whether users find a product or service useful, appropriate, and satisfying, beyond being merely technically operable. Psychological accessibility addresses factors such as user confidence, willingness to engage with technology, and…

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