Glossary

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Ad Blocker(also: Adblocker, Content Blocker)

A browser extension or built-in feature that prevents advertisements, trackers, and other unwanted content from loading on web pages, typically by matching requests against blocklists such as EasyList or EasyPrivacy. Ad blockers can substantially improve accessibility by…

Adaptive Assistive Technology(also: AAT, Adaptive AT)

Assistive technology that monitors a user's current and past performance and automatically adjusts its functionality to match their changing needs. Unlike static assistive technologies with fixed settings, adaptive systems continuously observe user behavior — such as typing…

Affirmative Consent(also: Yes Means Yes)

A consent model that requires explicit, active agreement to an action - typically framed as 'yes means yes' rather than the absence of refusal. Originating in sexual-violence prevention and adopted in HCI work on consent technology, affirmative consent emphasises that silence,…

Ambient Audio(also: Ambient Sound, Environmental Audio, Background Audio)

The background sound of an environment — voices, traffic, water, wind, music, birdsong — captured incidentally rather than as the main focus of a recording. In accessible photography and audiophotography tools, ambient audio is often recorded automatically in the seconds leading…

Anonymization(also: Anonymity, Anonymous Communication)

The process of concealing a person's identity when they create or share content, enabling participation in discussions about sensitive, personal, or controversial topics without fear of identification or reprisal. While anonymization is straightforward for users of written…

Assessment Descriptor(also: Visual Attribute Descriptor)

Brief visual attributes of objects — such as color, size, dimensions, and distance from the user — provided alongside obfuscated or spotlighted content to help users verify whether privacy techniques are working correctly. Research with blind participants has shown that common…

Assistive use exception(also: Assistive use legal exception, Assistive purpose exception)

A proposed legal framework that would permit the use of always-on sensing technologies (such as wearable cameras or microphones) for assistive purposes in contexts where recording is otherwise prohibited, analogous to how service animals are allowed in no-pet spaces under the…

Aural Eavesdropping(also: Audio Eavesdropping, Auditory Shoulder Surfing)

A security attack in which an unauthorized person overhears sensitive information such as passwords, PINs, or personal data being spoken aloud. This is a particular concern for people who are blind or have low vision because screen readers announce all on-screen content audibly,…

Background Mode

A privacy technique in visual assistance technologies that obfuscates a specific private object while preserving all other elements in the image or video. For example, a user might select a pill bottle as private content, and background mode would blur or hide only the pill…

Biometric Authentication(also: Biometrics, Biometric Identification)

A security method that verifies a person's identity using unique biological characteristics such as fingerprints, facial features, iris patterns, or voice. For people with vision impairments, biometric authentication — particularly fingerprint recognition — is widely preferred…

Blockchain(also: Distributed Ledger, Distributed Ledger Technology, DLT)

A blockchain is a distributed, append-only digital ledger in which records (blocks) are cryptographically linked and replicated across a decentralized network of nodes. No single party controls the data; once written, records are extremely difficult to alter. In accessibility…

Browser Fingerprinting(also: Device Fingerprinting, Canvas Fingerprinting)

A technique used to identify and track users based on the unique characteristics of their web browser and device configuration, including installed plugins, screen resolution, fonts, and accessibility settings. Browser fingerprinting poses privacy concerns for assistive…

Busyness(also: Activity Level, Activity Intensity)

In the telecare literature, busyness is a coarse-grained measure of overall domestic activity — typically the count of ambient sensor firings per room per time period — used as a proxy for a resident's level of engagement with their home environment, without attempting to…

Bystander privacy(also: Third-party privacy, Incidental privacy)

The privacy concerns of people who are unintentionally captured or observed by technology being used by others. In the context of assistive technology, bystander privacy refers to the rights and concerns of sighted people who may be recorded, analyzed, or described by…

Coercion Resistance(also: Receipt-Freeness, Anti-Coercion)

Coercion resistance is a security property of voting systems that prevents a coercer from verifying how a voter cast their ballot, even if the voter cooperates with the coercer. A related but weaker property, receipt-freeness, means the voter cannot produce proof of their vote…

Communication Privacy Management Theory(also: CPM, CPM Theory)

A communication theory developed by Sandra Petronio that treats private information as something people own and collectively manage through negotiated rules about boundaries, co-ownership, and turbulence (boundary violations). CPM is widely used to analyse online…

Consent(also: Informed Consent)

Voluntary, informed, and revocable agreement by a person to a particular action or interaction involving them - whether that is sexual activity, data collection, medical treatment, research participation, or interaction with an automated system. In accessibility contexts,…

Contextual Integrity(also: CI, Contextual Privacy)

A privacy framework developed by Helen Nissenbaum that defines privacy not as secrecy but as the appropriate flow of information according to context-specific norms. According to contextual integrity, privacy is violated when information flows deviate from the norms governing a…

Cookie Notice(also: Cookie Banner, Cookie Consent Banner, Cookie Popup)

A user interface element that appears on websites to inform visitors about the use of cookies and other tracking technologies, typically requesting consent to store data on their device. Cookie notices are required under privacy regulations like GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive.…

Dark Patterns(also: Deceptive Design Patterns, Deceptive Patterns, Manipulative Design)

User interface designs that trick or manipulate users into taking actions they did not intend, such as subscribing to services, sharing personal data, or accepting unfavorable terms. In the context of privacy, dark patterns in cookie notices might include pre-selected consent…

Data Minimization

A privacy principle requiring that organizations collect, process, and retain only the minimum amount of personal data necessary to accomplish a specific purpose. For assistive technology users, data minimization is particularly important because these technologies often capture…

Data Protection(also: Data Privacy)

The practices, policies, and legal frameworks governing how personal information is collected, stored, processed, and shared by organizations. For assistive technology companies, data protection is especially critical because their products often collect intimate details about…

Data Stewardship(also: Dataset Stewardship, Data Governance)

The responsible management of data throughout its lifecycle, including decisions about collection, storage, access, sharing, and disposal. In accessibility research, participatory data stewardship involves disabled data contributors in decisions about how their data is used,…

Data Transparency(also: Data Processing Transparency)

The practice of clearly communicating to users what data is collected, how it is processed, where processing occurs (on-device vs. cloud), how data is stored, and who has access to it. In accessibility contexts, blind users have expressed strong desires to understand data…

Dataveillance

Surveillance conducted through the systematic collection, aggregation, and analysis of personal digital data — clicks, location traces, physiological signals, text, voice, facial data — rather than through direct observation. Dataveillance is the dominant mode in modern…

De-identification(also: De-ID, Data De-identification)

The process of removing or obscuring personally identifiable information from data, images, or video to protect an individual's privacy. In video contexts, de-identification may involve blurring, pixelating, or replacing faces and other identifying features. For sign language…

Differential Vulnerability

The concept that different populations face different types and degrees of risk from the same technology, based on factors such as disability, age, gender, or socioeconomic status. In accessibility and privacy research, differential vulnerability highlights that disabled users,…

Differential privacy(also: DP)

A mathematical framework for sharing statistical information about a dataset while providing provable guarantees that individual records cannot be identified. In accessibility contexts, differential privacy is proposed as a way to resolve the tension between collecting…

Digital Nudge(also: Technology Nudge, Behavioral Nudge)

Design elements in digital interfaces that subtly guide users toward particular behaviors or decisions. In privacy contexts, nudges might suggest obfuscating detected sensitive content or prompt users to review their sharing settings. HCI scholarship has critiqued nudging as…

Emotional Agency

The ability of an individual to independently manage their emotional responses and experiences, particularly when encountering sensitive or personal information. In the context of accessibility and generative AI, emotional agency refers to the capacity of blind and low vision…

End-to-End Verifiable Voting(also: E2E-V, End-to-End Verifiable Election System)

A class of voting systems designed so that each voter can independently verify their vote was cast as intended, recorded as cast, and counted as recorded, while preserving ballot secrecy. Examples include Helios, Belenios, Scantegrity, Pret-a-Voter, and newer wallet-based…

Face Recognition(also: Facial Recognition, Face Detection)

A technology that uses computer vision and machine learning to identify or verify a person by analysing their facial features from images or video. In accessibility contexts, face recognition has significant potential as an assistive tool for blind and deafblind people, enabling…

Face Swap(also: Face Transformation, Face Replacement)

A technology that replaces the face of a person in a video or image with a different face while attempting to preserve the original person's facial expressions, head movements, and lip synchronization. In the context of accessibility, face swap technology has potential…

Facial Recognition(also: Face Recognition, FR)

Facial recognition is a computer vision technology that identifies or verifies a person by analyzing and comparing patterns in their facial features from digital images or video. In accessibility contexts, facial recognition has significant potential to assist blind and low…

Federated Learning(also: FL)

A machine-learning approach in which a shared model is trained across many user devices without the raw training data ever leaving those devices: each device computes updates locally and sends only model parameters or gradients to a central server for aggregation. Federated…

Focus Mode

A privacy technique in visual assistance technologies that spotlights a specific object of interest while obfuscating or hiding all other elements in the image or video. For example, a user might activate focus mode to view only a microwaveable meal while everything else in the…

Forced Intimacy

Forced Intimacy is a concept coined by disability and transformative justice activist Mia Mingus that describes the experience of disabled people being expected to share very personal information with non-disabled people simply to access basic services, navigate public spaces,…

GDPR(also: General Data Protection Regulation)

A comprehensive data privacy regulation enacted by the European Union in 2018 that governs how organizations collect, store, process, and share personal data of EU residents. GDPR establishes key principles including consent (users must actively agree to data collection), the…

General Data Protection Regulation(also: GDPR)

A European Union regulation (2016/679) that governs the collection, processing, and storage of personal data for individuals within the EU and EEA. GDPR requires that consent for data processing be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous—which has significant…

HIPAA(also: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)

A 1996 United States federal law that establishes national standards for the protection of certain health information. HIPAA's Privacy Rule governs who may access protected health information (PHI), while its Security Rule mandates administrative, physical, and technical…

Homomorphic Encryption(also: Partially Homomorphic Encryption, Fully Homomorphic Encryption, FHE)

Homomorphic encryption is a form of encryption that allows computations to be performed on ciphertext (encrypted data) without first decrypting it, such that the result, when decrypted, matches the result of the same operation on the plaintext. In e-voting, homomorphic tallying…

Identity Wallet(also: Digital Identity Wallet, EUDI Wallet)

A smartphone app that stores digitally signed credentials representing attributes of a person's identity — such as name, date of birth, government-issued ID number, student enrolment, or professional qualification — and lets the holder selectively disclose only the attributes…

Image Obfuscation(also: Image Masking, Visual Privacy Protection)

Techniques applied to images to obscure or remove sensitive visual information before sharing or processing, such as blurring, pixelation, edge filtering, or masking regions of an image. In accessibility contexts, image obfuscation is important for privacy-preserving assistive…

Implicit Interaction(also: Implicit Input, Implicit Human-Computer Interaction)

Implicit interaction refers to user input that the system infers from natural behaviors not explicitly performed for the purpose of issuing commands, such as gaze, gait, posture, physiological signals, or ambient context. It contrasts with explicit interaction, where users…

Impression Management(also: Self-Presentation)

The conscious or unconscious process of controlling how one is perceived by others, including managing what personal information is visible or shared. For blind people using visual assistance technologies, impression management includes controlling what appears in…

Inclusive Privacy(also: Accessible Privacy, Privacy and Accessibility)

An emerging field of research and practice focused on designing security and privacy mechanisms that are inclusive of people with diverse characteristics, abilities, needs, and values — particularly people with disabilities. Inclusive privacy recognizes that standard privacy…

Informational Privacy(also: Information Privacy, Data Privacy)

The ability of individuals to control information about themselves—determining what personal data is collected, who can access it, and how it is used. In assistive technology contexts, informational privacy concerns arise when systems monitor health behaviors, location, or…

Informed Consent

The process by which individuals are provided with clear, understandable information about how their data will be collected, used, and shared, enabling them to make voluntary decisions about participation or data sharing. In accessibility contexts, informed consent presents…

Local-First Software(also: Local-First)

A software design philosophy, articulated by Kleppmann and colleagues in 2019, in which applications keep the user's primary data on local devices and treat cloud services as optional synchronization or backup layers rather than as the source of truth. Local-first systems aim to…

Mix Network(also: Mixnet, Mix-Net, Re-encryption Mixnet)

A mix network (mixnet) is a cryptographic routing protocol that achieves anonymity by passing encrypted messages through a chain of servers (mix nodes), each of which reorders and re-encrypts the messages before passing them on. In e-voting, mixnets are used to anonymize…