Glossary

Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.

19 results found in Accessibility Principles.

Accessibility Allyship (Disability Allyship, A11y Allyship)
The practice of non-disabled individuals actively supporting and advocating for people with disabilities by learning about accessibility barriers, amplifying disabled voices, and taking concrete actio…
Age-Sensitive Design (Age-Sensitive Creative AI Mediation)
A design stance that treats age-related physical, cognitive, and digital-literacy characteristics as first-class inputs to the system design process rather than as edge cases to be handled after the f…
Capability Sensitive Design
A design approach, proposed by Ilse Oosterlaken, that takes human diversity morally seriously and evaluates technologies by how they actually expand or constrain the real opportunities (capabilities) …
Collective Communication Access (CCA)
A framework developed by McDonnell et al. (2023) that reconceptualises communication access as a shared, co-constructed practice distributed across everyone involved in an interaction, rather than as …
Disability Awareness (Disability Awareness Training)
The understanding and recognition of the experiences, challenges, and rights of people with disabilities. Disability awareness encompasses knowledge of different types of disabilities, the barriers (p…
Disability Interaction (DIX)
A challenge-based approach and manifesto for creating a more inclusive world where disability can be an inspiration for innovation and creativity, and where inclusion is the norm. Proposed by Catherin…
Error Tolerance (Error Prevention, Forgiveness)
A design principle requiring that systems anticipate, prevent, and gracefully handle user errors. In accessible design, error tolerance means providing clear validation messages, allowing users to und…
Functional Equivalency (Functional Equivalence, Communication Equivalence)
The principle that accommodations and alternative formats should provide people with disabilities an experience that is comparable in quality, timeliness, and completeness to that of non-disabled user…
Procedural Accessibility
An aspect of web accessibility that addresses the consistency and clarity of interaction sequences and workflows within digital systems. Procedural accessibility ensures that similar services follow t…
Relational Sovereignty
A framework proposed by Jang, Carrington and Begel (2026) as a new goal (telos) for socially assistive technology, defined as the recognised authority of a disabled person to choose their relational m…
Semantic Accessibility
An approach to web accessibility that focuses on the predictability and consistency of user interface behavior, layout, and interaction patterns rather than the underlying code. Semantic accessibility…
Situationally-Induced Impairments and Disabilities (SIIDs, Situationally Induced Impairments and Disabilities, Situation-Induced Disabilities)
An accessibility framework, introduced by Sears et al., that describes how everyday environments and tasks can temporarily impose the same kinds of barriers on non-disabled users that permanent impair…
Skeuomorphic Design (Skeuomorphism)
A design approach in which digital interface elements are made to resemble their real-world physical counterparts in appearance and behavior. For example, a digital notepad might have lined paper text…
Syntactic Accessibility (Technical Accessibility)
The dimension of web accessibility concerned with the correctness of code sent to the browser and assistive technologies. Syntactic accessibility focuses on whether HTML markup, ARIA attributes, and o…
Text Alternatives (Text Alternative, Text Equivalent)
WCAG 2.1 Guideline 1.1 and success criterion 1.1.1 require that all non-text content (images, charts, audio, video, form controls, etc.) have a text alternative serving the equivalent purpose. Text al…
Universal Access (Universal Accessibility)
The principle and practice of designing products, environments, programs, and services to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized desig…
Universal Accessibility (Accessibility for All)
A broad approach to accessibility that goes beyond technical compliance with specific disability-focused guidelines to encompass the needs of all users regardless of age, experience, cultural backgrou…
User Empowerment (Design for User Empowerment)
A design philosophy that prioritizes giving users, particularly people with disabilities, the agency and tools to solve their own problems, customize their experiences, and participate as active creat…
Wholeness
Wholeness is a core principle of the 10 Principles of Disability Justice articulated by Sins Invalid: the recognition that 'each person is full of history and life experience' and has inherent worth o…