Glossary

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Chrononormativity(also: Temporal Normativity)

The way institutions impose normative temporal expectations—standardized timelines, schedules, and paces of development—that shape how bodies and lives are organized and evaluated. In assistive technology contexts, chrononormativity manifests through rigid institutional clocks…

Civic Participation(also: Civic Engagement)

Civic participation encompasses the activities through which individuals engage in the democratic process and public life, including voting, attending public meetings, contacting elected officials, and serving on boards or committees. For people with disabilities, barriers to…

Civil Inattention

A social behavior theorized by sociologist Erving Goffman describing how strangers in public spaces acknowledge each other's presence through brief eye contact or a nod, then deliberately look away to respect personal boundaries. Civil inattention is a form of unfocused…

Co-Regulation(also: Coregulation)

Co-regulation is the process by which one person helps another manage their emotional or physiological state, through presence, calming behaviours, modelling coping strategies, or environmental adjustment. It is well established in developmental psychology (parent helping a…

Collaborative Access(also: Collective Access)

An approach to accessibility that frames access as a shared, negotiated process involving multiple stakeholders rather than an individual accommodation provided to a single person. Collaborative access recognizes that achieving inclusion often requires coordination between…

Collaborative Accessibility Authoring(also: Collaborative Authoring, Crowdsourced Accessibility)

An approach to web accessibility in which a community of volunteers collaboratively creates, maintains, and shares accessibility fixes for websites they do not own or control. Rather than relying solely on site owners to make their content accessible, collaborative authoring…

Community Care(also: Community-Based Care, Care in the Community)

A policy and practice model in which health and social care services are provided to disabled and elderly people in their own homes or local communities rather than in residential institutions. Community care aims to promote independence, choice, and social inclusion, but can…

Compromised Agency

A concept from science and technology studies describing situations where an individual's capacity to make meaningful choices is structurally constrained by systemic forces beyond their control, even as they retain some degree of decision-making power. In assistive technology…

Computer-Mediated Communication(also: CMC)

Communication that occurs through digital devices and platforms, including text messaging, email, video conferencing, voice chat, and social media. Computer-mediated communication raises accessibility challenges because many platforms assume users can see, hear, type, or speak.…

Criminalization

The process by which behaviors, identities, or survival strategies are defined as criminal, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities including disabled people. In accessibility contexts, criminalization creates access barriers when disabled people's survival…

Cross-Disability Solidarity(also: Cross-Disability Alliance, Disability Solidarity)

A framework for collective action in which people with different types of disabilities unite around shared goals of access, inclusion, and justice rather than organizing solely around specific disability categories. Cross-disability solidarity recognizes that while access needs…

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