Glossary

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Ableism(also: Disability discrimination, Disablism)

Discrimination, prejudice, or social bias against people with disabilities, rooted in the assumption that typical abilities are superior and that disabled people need to be fixed or are inherently less capable. Ableism operates at multiple levels: structural (inaccessible…

Access labour(also: Access labor, Disability labour, Accommodation labour)

The additional physical, cognitive, and emotional work that disabled people must perform to navigate inaccessible environments, systems, and social situations. This includes researching whether venues are accessible, requesting and negotiating accommodations, educating…

Adaptable system

A system that can be configured using prior knowledge before use, as opposed to an adaptive system which changes dynamically during use. In accessibility, adaptable systems allow users or administrators to set preferences in advance — for example, selecting a high contrast…

Assent(also: Informed assent, Child assent)

A participant's affirmative agreement to take part in research, used when the individual cannot legally provide informed consent — most commonly children or people with certain cognitive disabilities. Unlike informed consent, assent does not carry the same legal weight but…

Audism

Systemic discrimination and prejudice against deaf and hard of hearing people, rooted in the belief that hearing and spoken language are inherently superior to deafness and sign language. Coined by Tom Humphries in 1975, audism operates at individual, institutional, and societal…

Cognitive accessibility(also: Cognitive a11y, COGA)

The practice of designing digital content, interfaces, and interactions so they are usable by people with cognitive, learning, and neurological disabilities, including conditions such as dementia, intellectual disabilities, attention deficit disorders, and learning disabilities.…

Cognitive load(also: Mental load, Cognitive burden, Cognitive demand)

The total amount of mental effort required to complete a task, encompassing the processing of information, decision-making, remembering instructions, and managing attention. Cognitive load theory, developed by John Sweller in the 1980s, distinguishes between intrinsic load…

Collective access(also: Collective communication access)

A disability justice concept that frames accessibility as a shared, relational practice created by a group rather than an individual accommodation delivered to one person. In contrast to traditional models where a disabled person requests and receives access (such as captioning…

Crip technoscience(also: Crip tech, Critical disability technoscience)

A framework from disability studies, articulated by Aimi Hamraie and Kelly Fritsch, that positions disabled people as expert knowledge-makers and innovative technologists rather than passive recipients of assistive solutions designed by non-disabled professionals. Crip…

DeafSpace(also: Deaf Space, Deaf architecture)

A set of architectural and environmental design principles developed by architect Hansel Bauman in collaboration with the Deaf community at Gallaudet University, grounded in the sensory and spatial experience of deaf people. DeafSpace addresses five core elements: space and…

Design space(also: Interaction modality)

A medium, physical or abstract, through which a user and a device exchange information. The visual design space uses sight (screens, displays), the sonic design space uses hearing (speech, earcons, music), and the haptic design space uses touch (braille displays, vibration,…

Design space properties

The characteristics of information within a design space, classified by the type of cognitive processing they require. Direct properties relate to perception and automatic processing — colour, brightness, and pitch are perceived immediately without conscious effort. Indirect…

Design space structure

A framework characterising how raw information is organised within a design space. Nesbitt classifies information conveyed through sensory channels as nominal (categorical, such as labels), quantitative (measurable, subdivided into temporal, spatial, and geographical), and…

Digital accessibility for ageing(also: Age-related accessibility, Accessible ageing, Senior accessibility)

The practice of designing digital technologies that remain usable as people experience age-related changes in vision (presbyopia, contrast sensitivity loss, cataracts), hearing (presbycusis), motor control (reduced dexterity, tremor), cognition (slower processing, working memory…

Disability justice(also: DJ)

An activist framework developed by disabled queer people of colour — notably Sins Invalid, Mia Mingus, and Patty Berne — that centres the experiences of those at the intersection of disability and other marginalised identities. Unlike the disability rights movement, which…

Dramaturgical framework(also: Dramaturgy, Goffman's dramaturgy, Impression management)

A sociological framework developed by Erving Goffman in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956) that analyses social interaction as a theatrical performance. The framework distinguishes between the frontstage (the public performance where people present a desired…

Fidelity

An expression of how accurately a representation reproduces its source. A photograph is a high-fidelity visual representation of a scene but loses depth, sound, and smell. In accessibility and content adaptation, fidelity is a critical concern: when content is transformed from…

Functional accessibility

The degree to which a device or interface is usable by a specific user or user profile, either directly or through the addition of assistive technology. A system is functionally accessible for a given user if it enables them to complete their tasks, regardless of whether the…

ICF(also: International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health)

A framework developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and endorsed by all 191 member states in 2001 for describing and measuring health and disability. The ICF takes a biopsychosocial approach, classifying functioning and disability across four components: body functions…

Intrinsic accessibility

A property of a user interface whose underlying architecture inherently supports adaptation across a broad range of user capabilities, as distinct from functional accessibility which addresses specific user profiles through bolt-on assistive technology. An intrinsically…

Medical model of disability(also: Medical model)

A framework that views disability as a problem residing in the individual, caused by disease, trauma, or health condition, and requiring medical intervention to "fix" the person. In this model, a blind person is defined by their lack of sight, and solutions focus on treating or…

Neurodiversity(also: Neurological diversity)

A concept that regards differences in brain function and behavioural traits — including autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and intellectual disability — as natural variation within the human population rather than deficits or disorders. The term emerged from autistic…

Nonverbal communication(also: NVC, Body language, Nonverbal cues)

The transmission of information through channels other than spoken or written language, including facial expressions, eye contact, head gestures, hand movements, body posture, spatial proximity, and tone of voice. Nonverbal communication conveys essential social information…

POUR

The four foundational principles of WCAG: Perceivable (information must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive), Operable (user interface components must be operable), Understandable (information and operation of the user interface must be understandable), and Robust…

Social model of disability(also: Social model)

A framework that locates disability not in the individual but in societal barriers — physical, attitudinal, and systemic — that prevent full participation by people with impairments. Under the social model, a wheelchair user is disabled not by their inability to walk, but by…

Technosolutionism(also: Technological solutionism, Techno-solutionism, Tech solutionism)

The belief that complex social problems, including disability, can and should be solved primarily through technology. Popularised by Evgeny Morozov, the term describes a mindset that strips nuance from social issues and recasts them as neat technical problems with computable…

Universal design(also: UD, Design for all, Inclusive design)

A design philosophy that aims to create products, environments, and systems that are usable by the widest possible range of people without the need for adaptation or specialised design. Coined by architect Ronald Mace in 1997, universal design is guided by seven principles:…

27 results.