Glossary

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Decolonial Learning(also: Decolonial Design Practice)

A preparatory and ongoing phase in community-based research in which researchers — typically affiliated with Global North institutions or corporations — work to understand the historical, political, and cultural context of a community before setting a research agenda, and cede…

Delphi Method(also: Delphi Technique, Delphi Interview)

A structured research technique originally developed by the RAND Corporation for forecasting, in which a panel of experts participates in multiple rounds of questioning to reach consensus on a topic. In accessibility and HCI research, the Delphi method is used to gather expert…

Deployment Study(also: Field Deployment, In-the-Wild Study)

A research method where technology is placed in users' real-world environments for an extended period to observe natural usage patterns, adoption behaviors, and long-term experiences. Unlike controlled lab studies, deployment studies capture ecological validity by revealing how…

Design Fiction(also: Speculative Fiction, Diegetic Prototype)

A design research practice that creates fictional but plausible artifacts, scenarios, or narratives set in imagined futures to provoke discussion, surface assumptions, and explore the social and ethical implications of emerging technologies. Unlike traditional prototyping,…

Design Probe(also: Technology Probe, Design Provocation)

A research method in which a functional or semi-functional prototype is deployed with participants not primarily to test usability, but to provoke discussion, elicit design insights, and explore future possibilities. Design probes are deliberately open-ended, encouraging…

Design Workshop(also: Design Session)

A structured session where participants collaborate to generate ideas, create prototypes, and provide feedback on designs. Design workshops are a common method in user-centered and participatory design for involving end users in the development process. However, traditional…

Diary Study(also: Diary Method, Experience Sampling)

A longitudinal research method in which participants record their experiences, behaviors, and reflections over an extended period (days to weeks) while interacting with a system or technology in their natural environment. In accessibility research, diary studies are particularly…

Diegetic Prototype(also: Diegetic Prop)

A research and design method that uses modified versions of real-world content to demonstrate potential future interventions or technologies within a familiar context. In accessibility research, diegetic prototypes allow participants to experience and evaluate proposed…

Digital Ethnography(also: Virtual Ethnography, Netnography, Online Ethnography)

A qualitative research method that applies ethnographic principles to study online communities, digital cultures, and technology-mediated social interactions. Digital ethnography involves systematic observation and analysis of online behavior, content, and interactions in their…

Digital Phenotyping(also: Active Digital Phenotyping, Passive Digital Phenotyping, Behavioral Phenotyping)

The use of data from digital devices (smartphones, computers, wearables) to quantify behavioral and physiological characteristics relevant to health or ability. Passive digital phenotyping collects data unobtrusively during natural device use (e.g., analyzing typing patterns or…

Disability-Centered Dataset(also: Disability-First Dataset, Accessibility Dataset)

A research dataset specifically designed to capture the practices, environments, and experiences of people with disabilities, rather than retrofitting general-purpose datasets for accessibility evaluation. Disability-centered datasets reflect the real variability, messiness, and…

Disabled researcher(also: Researcher with disability, VI researcher)

A researcher who has a disability and conducts academic research, often — but not exclusively — in disability-related fields. Disabled researchers bring unique lived experience and situated knowledge to their work, which can deepen understanding and reduce bias. However, they…

Discourse Analysis(also: Critical Discourse Analysis, CDA)

A research methodology that examines how language constructs meaning, power relations, identities, and social realities. Critical discourse analysis specifically investigates how language in texts, media, and institutions reflects and reproduces social inequalities. In…

Dual-Positioned Researcher(also: Dual Positioning, Insider-Outsider Researcher)

A researcher who holds both the role of investigator and the lived experience of the condition or community being studied — for example, a person with OCD studying OCD, or a Deaf researcher studying Deaf users. Dual-positioned researchers bring interpretive depth and epistemic…

Duoethnography

A collaborative qualitative research method in which two researchers with differing perspectives examine a shared topic through dialogue, juxtaposing their personal experiences to generate deeper understanding. Unlike traditional ethnography, duoethnography treats the…

Dyadic Interaction(also: Dyad Interaction, Paired Interaction)

Social interaction between two individuals, studied as the fundamental unit of social exchange. In accessibility and intervention research, dyadic interaction is often examined in contexts such as child-caregiver pairs, student-peer partnerships, or client-therapist…

ELAN(also: EUDICO Linguistic Annotator)

A free, open-source annotation tool developed at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics for creating, editing, and searching multi-tier, time-aligned annotations on video and audio recordings. ELAN has become the de-facto standard tool for sign-language corpus work…

Ecological Momentary Assessment(also: EMA, Experience Sampling)

A research and clinical method that involves repeatedly sampling people's behaviors, experiences, and physiological states in real time within their natural environments. EMA typically uses smartphone prompts to ask users to report their current thoughts, feelings, activities,…

Ecological Validity

In user experience research, the degree to which a mediated experience feels natural, realistic, and believable—as if it could occur in a real-world context. In immersion measurement frameworks like the ITC Sense of Presence Inventory, ecological validity is a subscale alongside…

Ecological validity(also: Real-world validity)

The degree to which research findings from controlled laboratory settings accurately reflect behaviour and performance in real-world everyday contexts. In accessibility research, ecological validity is a critical concern because laboratory conditions — structured tasks, quiet…

Elicitation Study(also: Gesture Elicitation Study)

An elicitation study is a user research method in which participants are shown the effect of an action (called a referent) and asked to propose the input or gesture (called a sign) that should cause it. This approach generates user-defined interaction techniques rather than…

Emancipatory Research(also: Emancipatory Disability Research)

A research paradigm that positions people with disabilities not merely as research subjects but as active agents who lead and control research about their own lives and experiences. Emerging from the disability rights movement and the social model of disability, emancipatory…

Embodied Critique(also: Embodied Feedback, Body-Based Critique)

A method of expressing critical feedback through physical bodies and bodily actions rather than relying solely on spoken or written language. Embodied critique draws on disability cultures where communication frequently extends beyond verbal or textual modes, recognizing that…

Embodied Ideation(also: Embodied Design Ideation)

A design method that engages participants in generating ideas through physical movement, bodily interaction, and hands-on exploration rather than purely verbal or written communication. In accessibility contexts, embodied ideation is particularly valuable for including…

Embodied Sketching

Embodied sketching is a participatory design method in which participants and designers physically act out interaction ideas with their bodies, props, and the surrounding space rather than only sketching them on paper or screen. It surfaces movement, social, and sensory…

Embodied cognition(also: Embodied learning, Enactive cognition)

A theoretical framework proposing that cognitive processes are deeply shaped by the body's interactions with its physical environment — that thinking is not purely abstract but is grounded in sensory experience, motor action, and bodily engagement with materials. In…

EmojiGrid(also: Emoji Grid, EmojiGrid Scale)

A two-dimensional self-report tool, developed by Toet et al. (2018), in which participants rate the emotional content of a stimulus by clicking on a point in a grid whose axes are valence (horizontal) and arousal (vertical). Rows and columns of emoji faces are arranged around…

End-User Elicitation(also: Elicitation Study, User-Defined Gestures)

A participatory research method where end users are asked to propose or create their own interaction techniques, gestures, or commands for a given system function, rather than having researchers prescribe interactions in advance. In accessibility research, elicitation studies…

Error Taxonomy(also: Error Classification, Error Typology)

A systematic classification of the types of errors that users or learners commonly make, organised into categories based on the nature, source, or linguistic level of the error. In accessibility and educational technology, error taxonomies are used to build intelligent systems…

Ethnographic Study(also: Ethnography, Ethnographic Research)

A qualitative research methodology originating in anthropology that involves prolonged, immersive observation of people in their natural environments to understand their behaviours, practices, and social contexts. In accessibility and assistive technology research, ethnographic…

Evaluation Reliability(also: Inter-rater Reliability, Evaluator Agreement)

The extent to which independent accessibility evaluations of the same content produce consistent results. High reliability means that different evaluators using the same method will identify similar sets of accessibility problems, while low reliability indicates that results…

Experience Sampling Method(also: ESM, Ecological Momentary Assessment, EMA)

A research methodology that collects data about participants' experiences, behaviors, and states in real time and in natural settings through repeated brief surveys or prompts delivered at predetermined or random intervals throughout the day. In accessibility research, ESM…

Experience sampling method(also: ESM, Ecological momentary assessment, EMA)

A research methodology that captures participants' experiences, behaviours, and psychological states in real time as they go about their daily lives, typically through repeated brief surveys triggered at random intervals or after specific events. ESM reduces recall bias compared…

Experience-Based Co-Design(also: EBCD)

A participatory methodology originally developed in UK health services research that treats people's lived experience - their 'emotional touch-points' of confusion, frustration, or insight - as the core material for designing services or systems. Canonical EBCD stages include…

Explanatory Sequential Design(also: Sequential Explanatory Design, QUAN → QUAL)

A mixed-methods research design in which a quantitative phase is conducted first — typically a survey or other structured measurement — and its results are then used to guide a follow-up qualitative phase (often semi-structured interviews) that explores or explains the…

Exploratory Procedures(also: EPs)

Exploratory procedures are stereotyped movement patterns that people use when examining objects through touch to identify specific properties. Defined by Lederman and Klatzky in tactile perception research, these are hand and finger configurations that do not correspond to…

Extractive Research(also: Extractive UX Research)

A critique of research practices — common in industry UX and academic HCI — in which researchers take data, insights, or stories from a community, often marginalized, without ongoing relationship, reciprocity, or benefit flowing back. Extractive research is associated with…

Eye Tracking(also: Eye-Tracking, Gaze Tracking)

A research methodology that uses specialized hardware (such as infrared cameras) to measure where a person is looking on a screen or in an environment, recording the sequence and duration of gaze fixations. In accessibility research, eye tracking provides objective behavioral…

Eye Tracking(also: Gaze Tracking, Eye-Tracking)

A research methodology and assistive technology that measures where a person looks (fixation points), how their gaze moves across a display (saccades), and how long they focus on specific areas (dwell time). In accessibility research, eye tracking reveals how users visually…

Eye tracking(also: Gaze tracking, Eye-gaze tracking, Eye Tracker)

A technology that measures where a person is looking on a screen or in an environment by detecting eye position and movement, typically using infrared light and cameras. In accessibility, eye tracking serves dual roles: as an assistive input method allowing people with severe…

FaceReader(also: Noldus FaceReader)

A commercial facial-expression recognition software (developed by Noldus) that uses computer vision and deep learning to automatically classify faces into basic emotions (neutral, happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared, disgusted) and to estimate emotional valence and arousal in…

Facial Action Coding System(also: FACS)

A comprehensive, anatomically based system for describing all visually discernible facial movements, originally developed by Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen in 1977. FACS decomposes facial expressions into individual components called Action Units (AUs), each corresponding to the…

Fair Compensation(also: Equitable Compensation, Research Compensation)

The practice of providing adequate and equitable payment to research participants for their time, expertise, and contributions. In accessibility research, fair compensation is particularly important because participants with disabilities contribute specialized lived expertise…

Feasibility Study(also: Feasibility Trial, Pilot Study)

A feasibility study is a small-scale investigation conducted before a full-scale trial to determine whether a planned intervention or system can be delivered as intended in its real-world setting. Feasibility work asks practical questions — Can we recruit? Can participants…

Feature Hashing(also: Hashing Trick)

A technique used in machine learning to convert text or categorical data into fixed-length numerical feature vectors by applying a hash function. Feature hashing is particularly useful for handling high-dimensional sparse data, such as the text of bug reports or user reviews. It…

Field Deployment(also: In-the-Wild Deployment, Real-World Deployment)

A research evaluation method where a system or tool is released to real users in their natural environments rather than being tested only in controlled laboratory settings. In accessibility research, field deployments are important because they reveal how assistive technologies…

Fitts's Law(also: Fitts Law)

Fitts's law is a predictive model of human movement that describes the time required to rapidly move to a target area as a function of the distance to the target and the target's size. Widely used in human-computer interaction (HCI) since the 1970s, it quantifies pointing…

Fitts's Law(also: Fitts Law)

A predictive model of human movement that describes the time required to rapidly move to a target area as a function of the distance to the target and the size of the target. Formulated by Paul Fitts in 1954, the law states that movement time increases logarithmically as the…

Fixation(also: Visual Fixation, Gaze Fixation)

A period during which the eyes remain relatively stationary on a specific point or area, typically lasting 100 to 600 milliseconds. During fixations, the brain processes the visual information at the point of gaze. In eye-tracking research, fixations are a primary unit of…

Focus Group(also: Focus Group Discussion, Group Interview)

A qualitative research method in which a small group of participants (typically 3-10) with shared characteristics discuss a topic guided by a moderator, allowing researchers to explore perspectives, opinions, and experiences through group interaction. Focus groups are considered…