Glossary

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AI Suitcase(also: AI-suitcase, Accessibility AI Suitcase)

A suitcase-shaped autonomous navigation robot for blind and low-vision travellers, developed as an open research platform by IBM Research, Carnegie Mellon University, Miraikan (the Japanese National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation), and project partners. The user holds…

AI Trust Calibration(also: Trust Calibration, Appropriate Trust)

The process of aligning a user's level of trust in an AI system with the system's actual reliability and capabilities. In accessibility contexts, trust calibration is critical because blind and low vision users of AI-powered visual access tools tend to over-trust AI-generated…

AI Verification(also: Accessible AI Verification, AI Output Verification)

The process of checking and confirming the accuracy of AI-generated output, particularly by end users who may not have visual access to the original content. For blind users, AI verification is challenging because they cannot visually compare AI output against source material.…

AI Verification Loop(also: AI Feedback Loop, AI Query Loop)

An interactive process where a user queries an AI system to verify the correctness of their work, receives descriptive feedback, and iterates based on that feedback. In accessible tool design, AI verification loops allow users who cannot perceive visual output to confirm that…

AI contestability(also: Algorithmic contestability, AI contestation)

The principle that users should be able to challenge, question, and seek recourse against decisions or outputs made by AI systems. In accessibility contexts, contestability is particularly important for blind users who rely on AI for visual access — they need mechanisms to flag…

AI disability representation(also: AI disability simulation, Disability representation in AI)

The portrayal or simulation of disabled experiences, communication styles, or perspectives by artificial intelligence systems. AI disability representation raises significant ethical concerns: while AI can make disability awareness training more scalable and interactive, it…

AI ethics(also: Artificial intelligence ethics, Machine learning ethics)

The field concerned with ensuring that artificial intelligence systems are developed and deployed in ways that are fair, transparent, accountable, and respectful of human rights. In accessibility contexts, AI ethics addresses concerns about algorithmic bias that may disadvantage…

AI for Accessibility(also: AI4A, Artificial Intelligence for Accessibility)

An umbrella framing used by technology companies and researchers for applications of artificial intelligence — including computer vision, natural language processing, speech recognition, and generative models — intended to benefit disabled users. Common examples include…

AI hallucination(also: Model hallucination, Confabulation)

The generation of plausible-sounding but factually incorrect or fabricated information by AI systems, particularly large language and multimodal models. In accessibility applications, AI hallucinations are especially dangerous because users who cannot independently verify visual…

AI in Education(also: AIEd, Educational AI)

The application of artificial intelligence technologies in educational settings, including intelligent tutoring systems, automated assessment, personalized learning pathways, content generation, and teacher support tools. AI in education has expanded rapidly with generative AI,…

AI literacy(also: Artificial intelligence literacy, Algorithm literacy)

The knowledge, skills, and critical awareness needed to understand, evaluate, and effectively engage with artificial intelligence systems. For people with disabilities, AI literacy is particularly important because lack of understanding about how AI tools work — including their…

AI sycophancy(also: Sycophantic AI, AI agreeableness bias)

The tendency of AI systems, particularly large language models, to provide overly affirmative, agreeable, or encouraging responses that cater to the user rather than providing accurate information. In accessibility contexts, AI sycophancy poses serious safety risks — for…

AI transparency(also: Algorithmic transparency, Model transparency)

The practice of making artificial intelligence systems understandable to users and stakeholders, including how they work, what data they use, and the confidence levels of their outputs. For assistive technology users, AI transparency enables informed decision-making about when…

AI-Assisted Editing(also: AI-Powered Editing, Intelligent Editing)

The use of artificial intelligence to support or automate aspects of content editing, such as suggesting improvements, applying changes based on user intent expressed in natural language, or automatically adjusting visual parameters. For blind creators, AI-assisted editing can…

AI-Fabrication(also: AI-Assisted Fabrication, AI-Driven Fabrication)

The use of artificial intelligence tools, particularly generative AI, to support the design and manufacturing of physical objects through digital fabrication methods such as 3D printing and laser cutting. In assistive technology contexts, AI-fabrication combines text-to-image…

AI-Generated Alt Text(also: Automated Alt Text, AI Image Descriptions)

Alternative text for images that is automatically generated by artificial intelligence systems rather than written by humans. AI-generated alt text has become increasingly common on social media platforms and in accessibility tools, using computer vision and multimodal language…

AI-Generated Content(also: AIGC)

An umbrella term for text, images, audio, video, and other media produced by generative AI systems — especially large language models and diffusion-based text-to-image or text-to-video models — in response to user prompts. AIGC is widely used in creative tooling (backdrop…

AI-Generated Speech(also: Synthetic Speech, AI Speech)

Speech audio produced by artificial intelligence systems — typically neural text-to-speech or voice cloning models — rather than recorded from a human speaker. Deaf and hard-of-hearing content creators increasingly use AI-generated speech to add spoken-language tracks to signed…

AI-Mediated Communication(also: AI-Assisted Communication)

Communication that is facilitated, enhanced, or generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools. This includes AI-powered text generation, speech-to-text transcription, real-time translation, message drafting, and communication augmentation for people with speech…

AI-Mediated Dialogue

A paradigm in which a large language model (or similar conversational agent) stands between a user and a task, simulated social situation, or another user — either producing the conversational partner's turns, coaching the user's next turn, or both. AI-mediated dialogue is…

AJAX(also: Ajax, Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)

AJAX is a set of web development techniques that allow web pages to communicate with a server and update portions of the page content without requiring a full page reload. AJAX poses major accessibility challenges because dynamic content updates happen silently in the DOM,…

ALTO(also: Analyzed Layout and Text Object, ALTO XML)

An open XML format maintained by the US Library of Congress that stores the output of OCR (optical character recognition) together with the layout information of the scanned pages: character positions, confidence scores, candidate alternative characters, block and line geometry,…

AODA(also: Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act)

Canadian provincial legislation enacted in 2005 that sets out a roadmap to make Ontario fully accessible by 2025. AODA establishes mandatory accessibility standards across five areas: customer service, information and communications, employment, transportation, and the design of…

APK(also: Android Package, Android Application Package)

The file format used to distribute and install Android applications, containing compiled code, resources, assets, certificates, and a manifest describing the app's components and permissions. Accessibility researchers and auditors frequently work with APK files directly — either…

AR Marker(also: Fiducial marker, Augmented reality marker)

A printed visual pattern (often a square with a distinctive black-and-white code) placed in the environment that a smartphone or AR headset camera can recognise to determine its own position and orientation with high precision. In blind-navigation research, AR markers are placed…

ARASAAC(also: Aragonese Portal of Augmentative and Alternative Communication)

A publicly funded open pictogram library maintained by the Government of Aragon, Spain, providing nearly 12,000 colour and black-and-white pictograms licensed under Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA). ARASAAC symbols are widely used worldwide in augmentative and alternative…

ARIA(also: Accessible Rich Internet Applications, WAI-ARIA)

A W3C specification that provides a framework of roles, states, and properties to make dynamic web content and custom user interface controls accessible to assistive technologies. ARIA supplements HTML semantics where native elements are insufficient. The first rule of ARIA is:…

ARIA Hidden(also: aria-hidden Attribute)

An WAI-ARIA attribute (aria-hidden="true") that removes an element and its descendants from the accessibility tree, making them invisible to screen readers and other assistive technologies while potentially remaining visually visible. ARIA hidden is used to suppress decorative…

ARIA Live Region(also: Live Region, ARIA Live)

An ARIA live region is a section of a web page marked with the aria-live attribute that announces dynamic content changes to assistive technologies without requiring user focus to move to the updated area. Live regions are essential for making real-time updates — such as status…

ARIA Live Region(also: Live Region, aria-live)

A section of a web page marked with the aria-live attribute that is dynamically updated and should be announced by assistive technologies when changes occur, even if the user's focus is elsewhere. Live regions have politeness levels: "polite" (announced at the next convenient…

ARIA Live Regions(also: Live Regions, aria-live)

ARIA live regions are areas of a web page that dynamically update with new content and use WAI-ARIA attributes to communicate those changes to assistive technologies. The aria-live attribute (with values of off, polite, or assertive) tells screen readers how urgently to announce…

ARKit(also: Apple ARKit)

ARKit is Apple's augmented reality development framework for iOS that enables developers to create AR experiences for iPhone and iPad. It uses the device's camera, motion sensors, and processor to detect surfaces, track movement, and place virtual 3D objects in the real world.…

ASCII(also: American Standard Code for Information Interchange)

A character encoding standard that uses numeric codes to represent letters, digits, punctuation, and control characters in computers and communication equipment. ASCII assigns values 0-127 to 128 characters, covering the basic Latin alphabet. In accessibility contexts, ASCII is…

ASL(also: American Sign Language)

Abbreviation for American Sign Language, the primary sign language used by Deaf communities in the United States and much of Canada. ASL is a complete, natural language with its own grammar, vocabulary, and specialized registers (including STEM vocabulary), and is linguistically…

ASL Dictionary(also: Sign Language Dictionary, ASL Lexicon)

A reference resource for looking up American Sign Language signs and their meanings. Unlike dictionaries for written languages, ASL dictionaries face unique challenges because signs cannot be typed as search queries. Traditional ASL dictionaries organize signs alphabetically by…

ASL Gloss(also: Sign Language Gloss, Glossing)

A written notation system used to transcribe sign language by representing each sign with an English word written in capital letters. ASL gloss is used primarily for linguistic research, teaching, and documentation purposes rather than as a standard writing system for everyday…

ASL Grammar(also: American Sign Language Grammar)

The linguistic rules governing the structure and use of American Sign Language, which differs fundamentally from English grammar. ASL has its own syntax, morphology, and phonology, with word order, spatial grammar, and non-manual markers playing central roles. NMS serve as…

ASL Linguistic Markers(also: Non-Manual Markers, Non-Manual Signals, ASL Facial Grammar)

Facial expressions, head movements, and body postures that serve grammatical and semantic functions in American Sign Language and other sign languages, distinct from emotional facial expressions. Common ASL linguistic markers include MM (meaning effortlessly or regularly,…

ASL education technology(also: Sign language learning technology)

Technology designed to support the teaching and learning of American Sign Language, ranging from video-based instructional platforms and feedback systems to computer vision tools that analyse signing performance. ASL education technology is an accessibility enabler because…

ASLTA(also: American Sign Language Teachers Association)

A US-based professional association founded to support and certify ASL educators. ASLTA publishes curriculum standards, offers certification at multiple levels (Provisional, Qualified, Professional, Master), runs professional development events, and advocates for rigorous ASL…

ASR Captioning(also: Automatic Captioning, Live Auto-Captioning, AI Captioning)

The use of automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology to generate real-time text captions of spoken language, commonly used as an accessibility tool for Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals in meetings, lectures, and video calls. Unlike professional captioning services (such…

ASSETS(also: ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility)

The premier academic conference on accessible computing, organized by ACM SIGACCESS (Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing). ASSETS began as a research conference planned by SIGCAPH (the predecessor to SIGACCESS) in the early 1990s and has grown into the leading venue…

AT Abandonment(also: Assistive Technology Abandonment, Device Abandonment)

The discontinuation of use of an assistive technology device by its intended user. AT abandonment rates are significant, with research showing that up to one-third of all assistive devices are abandoned within the first year. Common reasons include poor device fit, lack of…

AT Impact Framework(also: ATIF, Assistive Technology Impact Framework)

A multi-level conceptual framework for evaluating the impact of assistive technology interventions on quality of life, developed from longitudinal research with smartphone users with sensory disabilities in Kenya. ATIF is structured across three ecological levels: Self…

AT Information Access(also: Assistive Technology Information Access)

The ability of people with disabilities, caregivers, professionals, and other stakeholders to find, understand, and use information about assistive technology products and services. Effective AT information access requires content that is available in relevant languages and…

AT Service Delivery(also: Assistive Technology Service Delivery)

The systems, processes, and organizational structures through which assistive technology devices and services reach end users. Effective AT service delivery encompasses needs assessment, device selection, fitting, training, follow-up, and ongoing support. Models range from…

ATAG(also: Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines)

A W3C standard that provides guidelines for making authoring tools—such as content management systems, HTML editors, and website builders—both accessible to authors with disabilities and capable of producing accessible content. ATAG 2.0, published in 2015, is organized into two…

ATK(also: Accessibility Toolkit, Linux Accessibility Toolkit, AT-SPI)

ATK (Accessibility Toolkit) is the accessibility framework for the Linux desktop environment, providing an API through which applications expose their user interface elements to assistive technologies such as the Orca screen reader. ATK defines interfaces for accessible objects…

ATutor

ATutor is an open-source web-based Learning Management System (LMS) developed at the University of Toronto's Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC, now the Inclusive Design Research Centre) with accessibility as a founding design principle. Created in the early 2000s to…

Abacus(also: Cranmer Abacus, Counting Frame)

A manual calculating tool consisting of a frame with rods and movable beads used for arithmetic operations. For visually impaired users, adapted versions like the Cranmer abacus feature beads that stay in place when moved and a backing to prevent displacement. The abacus enables…