Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
899 results found in Assistive Technology.
- 3D Environment Model (Building Information Model, Spatial Model, 3D Building Model)
- A detailed three-dimensional digital representation of a physical environment, such as a building interior, that includes the geometry of walls, floors, doors, windows, and fixed objects. In accessibi…
- 3D Printed Tactile Model (3D tactile model, Tactile 3D model, 3D-printed accessibility model)
- A physical, three-dimensional object produced by additive manufacturing (for example fused deposition modelling or stereolithography) that is designed to be explored by touch rather than sight. 3D pri…
- 3D Printing Pen (3D Pen)
- A handheld device that extrudes a quick-cooling thermoplastic filament (commonly PLA, PCL, or ABS) through a heated nozzle, leaving raised, three-dimensional lines that solidify within seconds of bein…
- 3D Reconstruction (Scene Reconstruction, 3D Scene Reconstruction)
- The computer vision task of recovering the 3D structure of a scene - geometry, camera positions, and sometimes object trajectories - from one or more 2D images or video frames. Techniques range from c…
- AAC Device (AAC System, Communication Device)
- A dedicated hardware device or software application designed to support augmentative and alternative communication for people who cannot rely on natural speech. AAC devices range from low-tech options…
- AI Content Describer (NVDA AI Content Describer)
- AI Content Describer is an add-on for the NVDA screen reader that uses multimodal AI models to generate descriptions of on-screen visual content — images, controls, icons, charts, and arbitrary screen…
- AI Proxy (AI Proxying)
- A design pattern in which an AI system acts on a user's behalf within a social, communicative, or interpretive setting — for example, generating a facial expression, voice, or written reply that repre…
- AI Suitcase (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 M…
- AI Verification Loop (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 veri…
- AI-Fabrication (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 cutt…
- ARIA Live Regions (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 val…
- ASL Dictionary (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…
- 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 a…
- Abandonment of Assistive Technology (Assistive Technology Abandonment, AT Abandonment, Assistive Technology Discontinuance)
- Abandonment of assistive technology is the well-documented phenomenon in which a substantial proportion of assistive devices acquired by disabled users — commonly reported in the literature at roughly…
- Ability-based design (ABD)
- An accessibility framework that shifts the design focus from disability (what users cannot do) to ability (what users can do), arguing that interactive systems should adapt to users' actual capabiliti…
- Accelerated Speech (Time-Compressed Speech, Speed-Up Speech)
- Audio output played at faster than normal speaking rate, commonly used by people with visual impairments when interacting with screen readers and other audio-based assistive technologies. Research sho…
- Accessibility API (Accessibility Interface, Platform Accessibility API)
- A programming interface provided by an operating system or UI framework that exposes information about user interface elements to assistive technologies. Accessibility APIs enable screen readers, swit…
- Accessibility API (Accessibility Application Programming Interface, Platform Accessibility API)
- A software interface provided by operating systems and browsers that exposes information about user interface elements — including their roles, states, properties, and relationships — to assistive tec…
- Accessibility API Mapping (AAM, Accessibility API Mappings, Acc API Mapping)
- Accessibility API Mappings (AAMs) are W3C specifications that define how the semantics of web content technologies — such as HTML, SVG, and WAI-ARIA — correspond to features in platform accessibility …
- Accessibility Commons (AC Repository, AC Metadata Repository)
- A shared metadata repository and schema proposed in 2008 by IBM, the University of Washington, Stony Brook University, and the University of Manchester to let accessibility-remediation research projec…