Glossary

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Social Robot(also: Companion Robot, Assistive Social Robot)

A robot designed to interact with people in socially meaningful ways, using verbal communication, gestures, and responsive behaviors to engage users. In accessibility contexts, social robots like SoftBank's Pepper have shown potential as confidence-building mentors, health…

Social Robot Navigation(also: Socially-aware robot navigation, Social navigation)

A subfield of robotics concerned with how a mobile robot should move through environments shared with humans — choosing paths, speeds, and timings that respect social norms as well as physical obstacle avoidance. Classic robot-navigation algorithms optimise for shortest-path…

Social Skills(also: Social Competence, Interpersonal Skills)

The abilities required for effective social interaction, including communication, cooperation, turn-taking, perspective-taking, reading social cues, and responding appropriately in social contexts. Social skill development is a key intervention target for individuals with autism…

Social Skills Intervention(also: Social Skills Training, SST, Social Skills Therapy)

Structured approaches to teaching social interaction skills to individuals who experience difficulties in social situations, commonly used with people with Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, or social anxiety. Interventions may include direct instruction, modeling, role-playing,…

Social Skills Training(also: SST, Social Skills Intervention)

A behavioral intervention approach that teaches interpersonal skills through instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. For individuals with autism spectrum disorder or social communication difficulties, social skills training may address areas like initiating…

Social Stories(also: Social Narratives)

Short, structured narratives developed by Carol Gray that describe social situations, expected behaviors, and appropriate responses in a clear, visual format. Social stories are widely used as therapeutic and educational tools for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and…

Social Story(also: Social Stories, Social Narrative)

A brief, personalized narrative written to help individuals with autism or other developmental disabilities understand and navigate social situations, transitions, or new experiences. Social stories are typically written from the first-person perspective and include photographs…

Social Support Behavioral Code(also: SSBC)

A classification framework used in health and social science research to categorize types of support exchanged between individuals. The SSBC identifies five categories of social support: informational (advice and guidance), emotional (empathy and caring), tangible (practical…

Social VR(also: Social Virtual Reality)

Virtual reality platforms and applications designed for social interaction, where users represented by avatars can meet, communicate, and engage in shared activities in virtual spaces. Popular social VR platforms include VRChat and Engage. In accessibility research, social VR…

Social Virtual Reality(also: Social VR, SVR)

Virtual reality platforms designed primarily for social interaction, where users meet, communicate, and engage in shared activities through avatars in three-dimensional virtual spaces. Examples include VRChat, AltspaceVR, and Rec Room. Social VR presents unique accessibility…

Social Wayfinding(also: Social Navigation Assistance)

Social wayfinding refers to the capacity to perceive and navigate the dynamics of a social scene, not just its physical layout. It covers identifying who is present, where they are oriented, whether they are available for interaction, what they are doing, and how they are…

Social accessibility(also: Social model of access)

An approach to accessibility that recognises the role of social interactions, human help, and community practices in enabling access for people with disabilities, rather than focusing solely on technological or environmental modifications. Social accessibility encompasses…

Social cognition(also: Social perception, Theory of mind)

The set of cognitive processes involved in understanding and responding to social information, including recognising emotions, interpreting intentions, understanding sarcasm and figurative language, taking others' perspectives, and navigating social norms. Social cognition can…

Social isolation(also: Loneliness, Social exclusion)

A state of limited or absent social contact and meaningful relationships, recognized as a significant risk factor for poor physical and mental health outcomes, particularly among older adults and people with disabilities. Social isolation can result from physical barriers…

Social media accessibility(also: Accessible social media)

The design and implementation of social media platforms and content to be usable by people with disabilities, encompassing both platform-level accessibility (screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, captioned video) and content-level accessibility (alt text on images,…

Social model of disability(also: Social model)

A framework that locates disability not in the individual but in societal barriers — physical, attitudinal, and systemic — that prevent full participation by people with impairments. Under the social model, a wheelchair user is disabled not by their inability to walk, but by…

Social robot(also: Socially assistive robot, Companion robot)

A robot designed to interact and communicate with people in socially meaningful ways, often through movement, sound, or simulated emotional expression. In accessibility contexts, social robots are used to support neurodivergent individuals, older adults, and people with…

Social usability

The degree to which a technology supports positive social interactions and self-presentation for its users, particularly in contexts where technology use is visible to others. Social usability goes beyond functional task completion to consider whether using a product causes…

Social-purpose Crowdsourcing(also: Social-good Crowdsourcing, Altruistic Crowdsourcing)

Crowdsourcing aimed at achieving a social or public-benefit goal rather than producing paid labour or commercial output. Examples include volunteer proofreading for accessible-book libraries, crowdsourced captioning, alternative-text generation, OCR error correction for…

Socially Assistive Robot(also: SAR, Social Robot)

A robot designed to assist people through social interaction rather than physical manipulation. Socially assistive robots use embodied presence, movement, and social behaviors such as gaze, gestures, and expressions to provide support in contexts including therapy, education,…

Socially Assistive Robotics(also: SAR)

Socially assistive robotics is a field of robotics focused on designing robots that assist people through social interaction rather than physical manipulation. SAR robots engage users through conversation, gesture, facial expression, and behaviour to support therapy,…

Socially Recursive Inference(also: Social Recursion)

The cognitive process by which individuals' perceptions and behaviors are shaped by what they believe others think about them or their situation. In accessibility contexts, socially recursive inference manifests when AT users are influenced by what they think non-disabled people…

Socio-Gerontechnology

A theoretical framework, developed by Alexander Peine and Louis Neven, that analyses aging and technology as mutually constitutive: technologies do not simply serve pre-existing aging needs, and aging is not a pre-given biological fact — the two co-produce each other through…

Socio-Technical Aspirations

Individual- or community-driven ambition and desire to own or use a specific technology for personal benefit or societal acceptance or both. This concept, introduced by Sharma et al. (2020) as an extension to frameworks for assistive technology design, captures how technology…

Socio-Technical Grounded Theory(also: STGT)

Socio-Technical Grounded Theory (STGT) is a qualitative research methodology adapted from classical Grounded Theory for studying technology within its social and organisational context. It extends the original constant comparison and theoretical sampling principles of Grounded…

Socio-Technical Infrastructure(also: Sociotechnical System)

The interconnected combination of social structures (institutions, policies, norms, relationships) and technical systems (software, hardware, platforms) that together shape how people interact with technology and each other. In accessibility contexts, socio-technical…

Sociocultural Learning Theory(also: Sociocultural Theory, Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory)

A theory of learning developed by Lev Vygotsky that argues cognitive development and knowledge acquisition are fundamentally social, mediated by language, culture, and interaction with more knowledgeable others. Key concepts include the zone of proximal development (the gap…

Sociotechnical Identity

The aspect of personal identity that is constructed and expressed through the technologies a person uses. In assistive technology research, sociotechnical identity refers to how AT serves as a vehicle conveying both functional ability and social identity. The concept recognizes…

Sociotechnical Infrastructure

The interconnected system of social structures, organizational practices, technical tools, and institutional arrangements that collectively support a technology-based service or program. In assistive technology distribution, sociotechnical infrastructure encompasses not just the…

Sociotechnical Systems(also: Sociotechnical Assemblage)

A framework for understanding technology as inseparable from the social practices, institutions, power structures, and cultural norms in which it is embedded. In accessibility research, a sociotechnical perspective reveals that assistive technologies are not neutral tools but…

Socratic Questioning

A disciplined, dialogue-based teaching method that uses probing questions to help learners examine assumptions, consider alternatives, and reason through problems rather than receive direct answers. Named after the philosopher Socrates, it is widely used in critical-thinking…

Soft Key(also: Softkey, Context-sensitive Key)

A soft key is a physical button on a device whose labelled function changes depending on the current application or screen — typically indicated by an on-screen label positioned next to the button. Soft keys let hardware designers fit more commands into a limited number of…

Soft Keyboard(also: On-screen Keyboard, Virtual Keyboard, OSK)

A keyboard displayed on a screen that is operated by a pointing device (mouse, touch, head tracker, eye gaze, or switch) rather than physical key presses. Soft keyboards are essential assistive technology for people who cannot use a standard physical keyboard due to motor…

Software Localization(also: L10n, Product Localization)

The process of adapting software for use in a specific locale or market, encompassing not only translation of text but also adaptation of date formats, number systems, currency, cultural conventions, and user interface design patterns. In the context of assistive technology,…

Soma design(also: Somaesthetic design)

A design approach rooted in somaesthetics that foregrounds the sensing, feeling, living body as both the subject and medium of design. Soma design attends to the full range of bodily experience — touch, proprioception, movement, temperature, tension — rather than privileging…

Somaesthetic Appreciation(also: somaesthetics)

A design philosophy concerned with cultivating heightened bodily awareness and first-person experience as a resource for interaction design. Derived from philosopher Richard Shusterman's somaesthetics, it positions the body not merely as a tool or data source, but as a site of…

Somaesthetics

Somaesthetics is a philosophical discipline, developed by Richard Shusterman, that treats the living, sentient, purposive body (the soma) as both a locus of aesthetic appreciation and a medium of creative self-fashioning. It integrates analytical, pragmatic, and practical…

Somatic Design(also: Soma-Centric Design, Body-Centric Design)

A design approach that prioritizes bodily experience, physical sensation, and embodied perception as primary channels for interaction and understanding. Somatic design shifts the focus from purely cognitive or visual interfaces to ones that engage the whole body, drawing on…

Somatosensory(also: Somatosensation, Bodily Sensation)

Relating to the sensory system that processes touch, pressure, temperature, pain, and body position (proprioception). The somatosensory system is crucial for accessibility technologies that bypass vision or hearing, including Braille reading, tactile graphics, vibrotactile…

Song Signing(also: Signed Song, Sign-Singing, Song Sign)

A performative art form in which song lyrics are interpreted in a sign language (most commonly ASL) alongside body movement, facial expression, rhythm, and spatial use, so that the performer simultaneously conveys linguistic meaning and musical qualities such as tempo, dynamics,…

Songwriting(also: Therapeutic Songwriting)

A therapeutic intervention in which a client, often collaborating with a therapist, composes original lyrics and musical elements as a way to explore emotions, reframe experiences, and build a sense of authorship over their own narrative. In music psychotherapy, songwriting is…

Sonic Agency

The right and ability to influence and interact with sound in a meaningful way, regardless of one's hearing ability. Sonic agency extends beyond auditory perception to encompass visual, tactile, and kinesthetic forms of musical expression, as well as access to the tools, spaces,…

Sonic Storytelling(also: Audio Storytelling, Sound-Based Narrative)

The practice of conveying narrative, emotion, and information primarily through audio elements including narration, dialogue, sound effects, music, and spatial audio. In accessibility contexts, sonic storytelling is the approach used to make inherently visual media like comics,…

Sonic design space(also: Auditory design space)

The physical medium related to human hearing through which a user and device may interact. The sonic design space encompasses speech (both natural and synthesised), non-speech audio such as earcons and sonification, music, and environmental sounds. For many users of assistive…

Sonification(also: Auditory display, Data sonification)

The use of non-speech audio to represent information, data, or environmental characteristics. In accessibility, sonification provides an alternative or complement to visual displays, encoding spatial, quantitative, or categorical information as sound properties such as pitch,…

Sony Access Controller(also: PlayStation Access Controller, Project Leonardo)

A customisable game controller released by Sony in 2023 for the PlayStation 5, designed for players with limited motor control. The Access Controller is a circular unit with swappable button caps, long-throw levers, adjustable stick positioning, and four 3.5mm ports for external…

Sound Amplifier(also: Google Sound Amplifier)

An Android accessibility feature that uses the smartphone's microphone and headphones to amplify and filter ambient sounds in real-time, making it easier for hard of hearing users to hear conversations and environmental audio. Sound Amplifier can boost quiet sounds, reduce…

Sound Awareness(also: Sound Awareness Technology, Environmental Sound Awareness)

The ability to perceive, identify, and respond to sounds in one's environment, and the assistive technologies designed to support this ability for Deaf and hard of hearing individuals. Sound awareness encompasses both safety-critical sounds (fire alarms, sirens, approaching…

Sound Awareness Technology(also: Sound Recognition Technology, Sound Notification System)

Assistive technology systems that detect, classify, and communicate environmental sounds to deaf and hard of hearing users through visual, haptic, or text-based notifications. Examples include smartphone apps that identify doorbells, alarms, and speech, as well as…

Sound Classification(also: Sound Event Detection, Audio Classification)

The automated process of identifying and categorizing sounds into predefined categories such as speech, music, alarms, animal sounds, or environmental noise. Sound classification is a foundational capability in sound awareness technologies for deaf and hard of hearing users,…