Glossary

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3D Environment Model(also: Building Information Model, Spatial Model, 3D Building Model)

A detailed three-dimensional digital representation of a physical environment, such as a building interior, that includes the geometry of walls, floors, doors, windows, and fixed objects. In accessibility and navigation research, 3D environment models serve as spatial databases…

AI Suitcase(also: AI-suitcase, Accessibility AI Suitcase)

A suitcase-shaped autonomous navigation robot for blind and low-vision travellers, developed as an open research platform by IBM Research, Carnegie Mellon University, Miraikan (the Japanese National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation), and project partners. The user holds…

Accessible Mapping(also: Accessibility Mapping, Accessible Pedestrian Maps)

The creation and use of maps and geographic information systems that represent the accessibility characteristics of physical environments — including sidewalk inclines, curb cuts, surface types, path widths, stairs, and elevators — to support navigation and trip planning for…

Accessible Maps(also: Accessible Mapping, Accessible Cartography)

Maps and navigation tools designed to be usable by people with a wide range of disabilities, including visual, motor, and cognitive impairments. Accessible maps address both the digital accessibility of the map interface itself (such as screen reader compatibility, colour…

Airport Accessibility

The practices, technologies, policies, and physical design choices that enable travelers with disabilities to use airports independently and with dignity. In the United States, airport accessibility is governed partly by the FAA's Airport Disability Compliance Program (AC…

Assistive Suitcase(also: Robotic Suitcase, Smart Suitcase)

A mobility aid in the form factor of a rolling travel suitcase that has been augmented with sensors, computing, and feedback mechanisms to help blind or low-vision travellers navigate public spaces. The suitcase form factor is appealing because it is socially unobtrusive in…

Audio Augmented Reality(also: Audio AR, Augmented Audio Reality, Audio-Augmented Environment)

The overlay of digital sound — synthesised speech, music, earcons, or spatialised audio cues — onto a user's perception of their real or virtual environment. Audio augmented reality can be head-worn (via open-ear or bone-conducting headphones) or environmental (via fixed…

BlindSquare

A GPS-based iOS accessibility app designed for people who are blind or have low vision, providing spoken information about the surrounding environment — nearby points of interest, intersections, street names, and compass direction — drawn from OpenStreetMap and Foursquare data.…

Bluetooth Low Energy(also: BLE, Bluetooth LE, Bluetooth Smart)

A wireless communication technology designed for short-range data transmission with minimal power consumption. In accessibility contexts, BLE is widely used for indoor positioning and wayfinding systems through small transmitter devices called beacons. When a smartphone detects…

Cane Technique(also: White Cane Technique, Long Cane Technique)

The set of physical methods a blind or low-vision person uses to manipulate a long white cane while traveling. Common techniques include the two-point touch (side-to-side sweeping, touching ground at each step), constant-contact (sliding the cane tip along the ground in an arc),…

Detectable Warnings(also: Detectable Warning Surfaces, Tactile Warning Surfaces)

Detectable warnings are standardised tactile surface features installed on walking surfaces to alert people with visual impairments to hazards or transitions — most commonly the edge of a transit platform, the bottom of a curb ramp, or the junction between pedestrian and…

Emergency Evacuation Accessibility(also: Accessible Emergency Egress, Inclusive Emergency Evacuation)

The design of emergency evacuation procedures, systems, and infrastructure that enable people with disabilities to independently and safely exit buildings during emergencies. Traditional evacuation systems rely on visual and auditory alarms, posted signage, and physical routes…

Freezing Robot Problem(also: Freezing robot, Robot freezing)

A classic failure mode of autonomous robots operating among people, first characterised by Trautman and Krause (2010), in which a robot stalls indefinitely because every candidate path is blocked by predicted human motion. The problem arises because overly conservative motion…

Geocoding(also: Geo-coding, Geographic Coding)

The process of associating geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) or location identifiers with objects, markers, or data points. In accessibility contexts, geocoding is used to tag physical locations with digital information that assistive technologies can use — for…

Indoor Localization(also: Indoor Positioning, Indoor Positioning System, IPS)

The problem of determining the precise location of a person or device inside a building, where GPS signals are weak or unavailable. Indoor localization is foundational for accessible wayfinding systems aimed at blind and low-vision travellers, who need to know their position…

Indoor Positioning(also: Indoor Localization, Indoor Location)

Technology that determines a person's location within an indoor environment where GPS signals are unavailable or unreliable. Indoor positioning systems use various technologies including BLE beacons, Wi-Fi signal strength, RFID tags, ultra-wideband radio, and computer vision.…

Indoor Wayfinding(also: Indoor Navigation Wayfinding)

The process of navigating within enclosed spaces such as buildings, airports, shopping centers, and hospitals. Indoor wayfinding presents unique accessibility challenges because GPS signals are unavailable indoors, and traditional wayfinding cues like signs and maps are visually…

Inertial Sensor(also: IMU, Inertial Measurement Unit)

A sensor device that measures acceleration, rotation, and orientation using accelerometers and gyroscopes, often combined with magnetometers. In assistive technology, inertial sensors are used to track the direction a user is facing and the movements of their head or body,…

Logical Navigation(also: Structural Navigation, Semantic Navigation)

A non-visual navigation strategy in which a user moves through a web page by its semantic structure — jumping between heading levels, ARIA landmarks, skip links, form fields, or other role-tagged regions — rather than reading the content sequentially or sampling fragments by…

Map-less Navigation(also: Mapless navigation, Infrastructure-free navigation)

A class of robotic and assistive navigation techniques that do not require a pre-built environmental map or installed infrastructure such as Bluetooth Low Energy beacons, ultra-wideband anchors, or visual fiducials. Map-less systems instead rely on on-board sensors (LiDAR, RGB-D…

Navigability(also: Ease of Navigation, Web Navigability)

The ease and efficiency with which a user can move through a web page, application, or document to reach their intended content. For accessibility practice, navigability is a primary determinant of whether a screen-reader, voice-browser, or keyboard-only user can actually…

Occupancy Grid(also: Occupancy Map, Mental Occupancy Grid)

A spatial representation that divides an environment into a grid of cells, each indicating whether that location is occupied by an object, free space, or unknown. In accessibility and assistive technology, occupancy grids are used to help people with visual impairments build…

Page Landmarks(also: ARIA Landmarks, Landmark Regions, Landmark Roles)

Named regions of a web page that identify its high-level structure — for example banner, navigation, main, complementary, search, form, contentinfo — so that assistive technology can expose them as jump targets. Landmarks are typically declared with semantic HTML elements…

Pedestrian Accessibility(also: Sidewalk Accessibility, Walkability)

The degree to which outdoor pedestrian infrastructure — sidewalks, crosswalks, curb cuts, ramps, stairs, and pathways — enables people with diverse mobility needs to travel safely and independently on foot or using mobility devices. Pedestrian accessibility is affected by…

Project Sidewalk

An open-source web-based crowdsourcing tool developed at the University of Washington that enables volunteers to virtually audit sidewalk accessibility using Google Street View panoramas. Contributors label four types of accessibility features and problems: curb ramps, missing…

RSSI Fingerprinting(also: Received Signal Strength Fingerprinting, Radio Fingerprinting, Signal Fingerprinting)

An indoor localization technique in which a device estimates its position by comparing the current pattern of received signal strengths (RSSI) from surrounding radio sources — most commonly Bluetooth Low Energy beacons or Wi-Fi access points — against a pre-collected map of…

Radial Direction(also: Angular Direction, Heading, Bearing (audio display))

In auditory-display research, a data value that represents a direction in a plane — for example a compass bearing, the tangent of a curve, or the orientation of a pointer — treated as an angle rather than as a pair of Cartesian coordinates. Radial values are inherently circular…

Recreational Exploration(also: Wandering exploration, Exploratory navigation, Open-ended exploration)

Movement through an environment driven by interest, curiosity, or enjoyment rather than by a fixed destination — for example wandering a museum, browsing a shopping mall, or exploring a neighbourhood. For blind and low-vision people, recreational exploration is harder to support…

Route Learning(also: Route Familiarization)

The process by which a traveler — particularly a blind or low-vision person — acquires a mental representation of a specific path through an environment, including its turns, landmarks, distances, surface changes, and points of interest. Route learning is a core component of…

Scanning Navigation(also: Non-Visual Scanning, Auditory Scanning)

A non-visual navigation strategy in which a screen-reader or voice-browser user steps rapidly through a page one fragment at a time — line by line, item by item, or in fixed jumps (e.g. page-down keys) — listening just long enough to each fragment to detect an 'information…

Self-localization(also: Indoor Localization, Position Estimation)

The process by which a system or device determines its own position within an environment, typically using a combination of sensors, maps, and reference points. In assistive technology for blind and visually impaired users, self-localization is a critical component of indoor…

Social Navigation(also: Socially-aware navigation, Socially compliant robot navigation)

In robotics, the problem of moving through an environment that contains people, in a way that respects social norms, comfort, and safety. Social navigation goes beyond obstacle avoidance: it requires predicting pedestrian intentions, respecting personal space, interpreting…

Tactile Icon(also: Tactile Symbol, 3D Icon, Raised Icon)

A small raised or three-dimensional symbol placed on a tactile map or diagram that represents a real-world object, location, or concept through touch. Tactile icons can be abstract (geometric shapes requiring a legend) or representational (physically resembling the object they…

Talking Lights

Talking Lights is a commercial location-signalling system that modulates ordinary fluorescent light fixtures to transmit an inaudible digital signal, which a hand-held receiver carried by a blind user decodes into spoken information about the current location (for example, a…

Vision-and-Language Navigation(also: VLN)

Vision-and-language navigation is a task setup in which an agent follows natural-language instructions to move through a visual environment, grounding words like 'turn left at the blue sofa' onto what it sees in real time. Research in VLN has moved from small indoor simulators…

Wi-Fi Fingerprinting(also: WiFi Fingerprinting, Wi-Fi Positioning)

An indoor localization technique that estimates a device's position by comparing the signal strengths of nearby Wi-Fi access points against a pre-collected database of "fingerprints" — measurements taken at known reference points across a building. Because Wi-Fi access points…

36 results.