Glossary

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Ataxia-Telangiectasia(also: A-T, Louis-Bar Syndrome)

A rare, inherited, progressive neurological disorder that typically appears in early childhood and causes increasing difficulties with movement, coordination, and immune function. Children with A-T usually begin walking at a typical age but experience progressive ataxia (loss of…

Athetoid(also: Athetosis, Athetoid Movement)

A type of involuntary movement characterised by slow, continuous, writhing motions, particularly affecting the hands, fingers, and face. Athetoid movements are commonly associated with athetoid cerebral palsy, a subtype of cerebral palsy that results from damage to the basal…

Athetoid Cerebral Palsy(also: dyskinetic cerebral palsy, athetosis)

A type of cerebral palsy characterized by involuntary, slow, writhing movements (athetosis) that affect the face, trunk, and limbs. It accounts for about 10-15% of cerebral palsy cases and results from damage to the basal ganglia. People with athetoid cerebral palsy often…

Athetoid Cerebral Palsy(also: Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy, Athetosis)

A form of cerebral palsy characterized by involuntary, uncontrolled, slow writhing movements, particularly affecting the hands, feet, arms, and legs, and sometimes the muscles of the face and tongue. Athetoid cerebral palsy results from damage to the basal ganglia and is…

Athetosis(also: Athetoid movements)

A movement disorder characterized by slow, involuntary, writhing movements, particularly affecting the hands, feet, and face. Athetosis is one form of dyskinetic cerebral palsy and results from damage to the basal ganglia. People with athetosis often experience difficulty with…

Atomic Facts(also: Atomic Claims)

Self-contained units of information extracted from longer text, each representing a single verifiable claim or observation. In AI reliability research, decomposing model responses into atomic facts enables systematic comparison of what different models agree or disagree about.…

Attention(also: Attentional processing, Selective attention)

The cognitive process of selectively focusing on relevant stimuli while filtering out competing information. Cognitive neuroscience typically decomposes attention into three networks: alerting (maintaining readiness to respond), orienting (shifting focus across space or sensory…

Attention Capture Pattern(also: Attention Capture, Attention Grabbing Design)

A design element on a website intentionally crafted to draw users' attention toward content that serves the site's interests rather than the user's goals. Examples include bright promotional banners, flash sale notifications, pop-up offers, and visually prominent recommendation…

Attention Deficit(also: Attention Deficit Disorder, ADD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)

A cognitive condition characterised by difficulty sustaining focus, filtering distractions, and maintaining concentration on tasks. Attention deficits are common following traumatic brain injuries and are the defining feature of conditions such as ADD and ADHD. In accessibility,…

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(also: ADHD)

A neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent patterns of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that interfere with functioning and development. ADHD affects approximately 7.6% of children and 6.8% of adults worldwide and has three presentations: predominantly…

Attention Management(also: Attention Design)

Design strategies and techniques that help users direct, maintain, and recover attention while interacting with digital content. For users with ADHD, attention management in interface design includes minimizing distractions (reducing visual clutter, hiding non-essential…

Attention Mechanism(also: Attention)

A technique in neural networks that allows models to focus on relevant parts of the input when generating each part of the output, rather than relying solely on a fixed-length context vector. In sequence-to-sequence models, attention computes a weighted combination of all…

Attention Network Test(also: ANT, ANT-I, ANT-Child)

A computer-administered cognitive task developed by Fan, Posner, and colleagues that measures three functionally distinct attention networks — alerting (sustained readiness), orienting (shifting attentional focus in space), and executive control (resolving conflict between…

Attention Restoration(also: Attention Restoration Theory, ART)

A theoretical framework proposing that directed attention is a finite cognitive resource that becomes depleted through effortful focus and is restored through exposure to environments or activities that engage "soft fascination" — such as natural settings, visuals with fractal…

Attention Tunneling(also: Visual Tunneling, Attentional Tunneling, Cognitive Tunneling)

A phenomenon in which a user concentrates so narrowly on a primary information source - typically a visual overlay, head-up display, or instrument - that they fail to notice relevant events, objects, or hazards in their surrounding environment. In augmented and mixed reality,…

AuDHD(also: Autism and ADHD co-occurrence)

A term used by the neurodivergent community to describe the co-occurrence of autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in the same individual. Research suggests significant overlap between the two conditions, with estimates indicating that 50-70% of…

Audible Pedestrian Signal(also: APS, Accessible Pedestrian Signal)

A device attached to a pedestrian crossing traffic signal that conveys the WALK and DON'T WALK phases through non-visual cues — typically beeps, chirps, speech messages, or a vibrating tactile arrow indicating the direction of travel. APS support safe crossing for blind and…

Audience Modelling(also: Audience Modeling, User Modelling)

The practice of characterizing and formally describing distinct groups of users and their interaction characteristics to inform the design and evaluation of web interfaces. In accessibility, audience modelling involves identifying the specific abilities, disabilities, devices,…

Audification

A sonification technique that directly translates a data series into sound by mapping data values to audio waveform amplitudes, effectively "playing" the data as an audio signal. Unlike parameter mapping sonification, which maps data attributes to sound properties like pitch or…

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…

Audio Beacon(also: Auditory Beacon, Sound Beacon)

A spatial audio cue, typically a repeating tone or beep, attached to a specific location or object to help users with visual impairments navigate toward or identify points of interest in physical or virtual environments. Audio beacons vary in parameters such as pitch, timbre,…

Audio CAPTCHA(also: Audio HIP, Audio Human Interaction Proof)

An auditory alternative to visual CAPTCHAs, typically presenting distorted spoken letters, numbers, or words that users must transcribe. While intended as an accessible alternative for blind users, research shows audio CAPTCHAs have success rates of only 43-50% for screen reader…

Audio Cue(also: Auditory Cue, Sound Cue, Earcon)

A non-speech sound used to convey information in an interface. In accessible programming environments, audio cues represent code structures, syntax errors, or navigation landmarks—for example, a door-opening sound for an "if" statement or distinct tones for different indentation…

Audio Cues(also: Earcons, Auditory Icons, Sound Cues)

Non-speech sounds used in software interfaces to convey information, status changes, or events that would otherwise be communicated only visually. In accessible development environments, audio cues can indicate errors, warnings, code changes, and navigation events, providing…

Audio Customization(also: Audio Control, Sound Customization)

The ability for users to modify the audio characteristics of media content, including removing background sounds, enhancing speech clarity, adjusting volume levels for different audio channels, and controlling audio effects. Audio customization for accessibility goes beyond…

Audio Denoising(also: Noise Removal, Audio Noise Reduction)

The process of removing unwanted background sounds, noise, or audio artifacts from an audio signal while preserving the primary content (typically speech). In video accessibility for ADHD, audio denoising removes background music, sound effects, environmental sounds, and other…

Audio Describer(also: Describer, AD Writer)

A professional who writes and sometimes narrates audio descriptions for film, television, live performance, museums, and digital media. Audio describers craft concise verbal narration that conveys essential visual information (actions, settings, facial expressions, on-screen…

Audio Description(also: AD, Descriptive Audio, Audio Narration)

A narration track that describes visual elements of media, exhibitions, performances, or environments for people who are blind or have low vision. In museums, audio descriptions provide verbal accounts of exhibits, artworks, and spatial layouts. While valuable, research shows…

Audio Description(also: AD, Descriptive Video, Video Description)

A narration track added to video content that describes important visual information for people who are blind or have low vision. Audio descriptions are inserted during natural pauses in dialogue and other audio, conveying key visual elements such as actions, scene changes,…

Audio Description Authoring(also: AD Authoring, AD Creation, Description Writing)

The process of writing and producing audio descriptions for video content, live performances, or other visual media. AD authoring involves watching content, identifying key visual elements, writing concise and objective descriptions, timing them to fit within available gaps, and…

Audio Description Customization(also: Personalized Audio Description, Adaptive AD)

The ability for users to adjust the content and presentation of audio descriptions for video media based on their individual preferences. Customization dimensions may include detail level, emphasis on specific visual elements (such as facial expressions, scene settings, or…

Audio Description Script(also: AD Script, Video Description Script, Described Video Script)

An audio description script is the written text that forms the basis of an audio description track for video content. The script contains narration that describes visual elements — including actions, scene changes, character appearances, on-screen text, and other visual…

Audio Desktop(also: Auditory Desktop, Non-Visual Desktop)

An audio desktop is a logical workspace that provides the functionality of a graphical electronic desktop entirely through auditory interaction, including speech output, auditory icons, and audio-formatted content. Unlike screen readers that describe a visual desktop, a true…

Audio Ducking(also: Volume Ducking, Sidechain Compression)

An audio production technique that automatically reduces the volume of one audio track (such as background music or sound effects) when another track (such as narration or dialogue) is playing, ensuring speech remains intelligible. In accessible media production, audio ducking…

Audio Effect Placement(also: AE Placement, Sound Effect Timing)

The strategic timing of sound effects relative to narration or audio description in accessible media. Three primary placement strategies have been studied: pre-placement (sound effects before narration, which aids comprehension by providing advance context), overlapping…

Audio Emphasis Level(also: AEL)

A sonification technique that represents the degree of visual emphasis applied to text (such as larger font size, bold styling, or color changes) using distinct audio cues layered onto speech output. For example, strongly emphasized text might be accompanied by a bell ringing…

Audio Enriched Links(also: AEL, Audio Link Preview)

A JAWS screen reader extension that provides spoken previews of linked web pages before a blind user follows a hyperlink. When activated on a focused link, the system fetches the destination page in the background and speaks a summary including the page title, its relationship…

Audio Feedback(also: Auditory Feedback, Sound Feedback)

Information conveyed to a user through sound in response to an action or event within a system. Audio feedback encompasses a wide range of techniques including earcons (short abstract sounds), auditory icons (sounds that resemble real-world events), speech output, and…

Audio Fiction(also: Audio Vignette, Audio Scenario)

A speculative design research method that uses pre-recorded audio dialogues to present fictional scenarios depicting interactions with hypothetical future technologies. Audio fictions combine descriptions, dialogue, and sound effects to create immersive design probes that help…

Audio Formatting(also: Audio Rendering)

The process of converting structured electronic documents into audio output that conveys not just textual content but also the logical structure and formatting of the original document. Audio formatting uses synthesizer parameters such as pitch, stereo positioning, speaking…

Audio Game(also: Audiogame, Audio-Based Game, Accessible Game)

A video game designed primarily or entirely around audio output rather than visual graphics, making it accessible to players who are blind or have visual impairments. Audio games use techniques such as 3D spatial audio, sound effects, text-to-speech, and musical cues to convey…

Audio Guide(also: Audio Tour, Audio Description Tour, Museum Audio Guide)

A portable or installed audio system that provides spoken descriptions, narratives, or contextual information about exhibits in a museum, gallery, or cultural venue. Audio guides range from traditional handheld devices with numbered stops to smartphone apps with…

Audio HTML Access(also: AHA, AHA Framework)

Audio HTML Access (AHA) is a framework of principles for choosing sounds to use in audio-based HTML interfaces, developed by Frankie James at Stanford University in the late 1990s. The framework provides structured guidelines for selecting audio cues to represent web document…

Audio Icon(also: Auditory Icon, Earcon)

A non-speech sound used in a user interface to represent an object, action, or event, analogous to how visual icons represent concepts graphically. Audio icons use everyday sounds that have a natural association with what they represent (e.g., a crumpling sound for deleting a…

Audio Interface(also: Auditory interface, Sound-based interface)

An interface that conveys information through sound — including speech (text-to-speech), earcons, beeps, spatialised audio, and sonification of data streams. Audio interfaces dominate mainstream accessibility technology for blind users (screen readers, navigation apps such as…

Audio Interference(also: Audio Conflict, Speech Conflict)

Audio interference in a digital accessibility context is the overlap of two or more sound streams in a user's environment such that one masks another — most commonly, auto-playing media audio on a webpage drowning out a screen reader's synthesized speech. Because most consumer…

Audio Localization(also: Sound Localization, Auditory Localization)

The ability to identify the location of a sound source in space using auditory cues such as interaural time differences (the slight delay between sound reaching each ear) and interaural level differences (volume variations between ears). Audio localization is a critical skill…

Audio Probe(also: Fictional Audio Probe)

A research method using pre-recorded audio scenarios to ground discussion in qualitative studies. In accessibility research, audio probes present fictional but realistic use cases to participants, enabling them to react to concrete scenarios rather than abstract concepts. This…

Audio Production(also: Audio Engineering, Sound Production)

The process of creating, recording, editing, mixing, and mastering audio content using specialized software and hardware. For blind and low-vision users, audio production presents unique accessibility challenges because professional digital audio workstations (DAWs) like Logic…

Audio Separation(also: Source Separation, Audio Unmixing)

The process of isolating individual audio sources from a mixed audio signal—for example, separating speech from background music, sound effects, and ambient noise. Audio separation enables selective control over different audio components, allowing users to keep speech while…