Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
899 results found in Assistive Technology.
- Accessibility Focus (A11y Focus, Screen Reader Focus)
- The currently selected element in a user interface as perceived by a screen reader or other assistive technology. When an element has accessibility focus, the screen reader announces its description a…
- Accessibility Metadata (A11y Metadata, Accessibility Annotations)
- Structured information that describes the accessibility features, hazards, or access modes of digital content. Accessibility metadata can be embedded within content (such as alt text in HTML) or store…
- Accessibility Settings (Ease of Access, Accessibility Preferences)
- A centralised area within an operating system or application where users can configure features that adapt the interface to their needs. Typical accessibility settings include display options (text si…
- Accessibility Technology (Access Technology)
- A broad term encompassing any technology used to address accessibility barriers, including both dedicated assistive technologies and mainstream technologies repurposed for access. Unlike the narrower …
- Accessibility Tree (A11y Tree, Accessible Tree)
- A hierarchical data structure maintained by operating systems and browsers that represents the accessible elements of a user interface in a form that assistive technologies can interpret. The accessib…
- Accessibility overlay (Accessibility widget, Accessibility plugin, Overlay tool)
- A software layer, typically implemented as a JavaScript widget or browser extension, that applies modifications to a website's presentation or behavior with the goal of improving accessibility. Overla…
- Accessible Graphics (Accessible Images, Non-Visual Graphics)
- Visual information such as charts, diagrams, maps, and illustrations that has been made perceivable and understandable to people with visual impairments through alternative formats. These formats incl…
- Accessmonkey
- Accessmonkey was a 2007 client-side scripting framework, built on Greasemonkey for Mozilla Firefox, that let users and developers run site-specific JavaScript to repair inaccessible web pages on the f…
- Acoustic Activity Recognition (Sound Activity Recognition, Audio Activity Recognition, Environmental Sound Recognition)
- The use of microphones and machine learning to automatically identify and classify sounds occurring in an environment, such as doorbells, alarms, appliances, speech, and other everyday acoustic events…
- Acoustic Model (AM)
- An acoustic model is the component of an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system that maps short segments of audio (typically 10–25 ms frames of spectral features) to the linguistic units that produ…
- Active Noise Cancellation (ANC, Active Noise Control)
- A technique that reduces unwanted ambient sound by using microphones to capture incoming noise and electronically generating an inverted (anti-phase) audio signal that destructively interferes with it…
- Active Perception (Active Sensing, Sensorimotor Exploration)
- A view of perception in which the perceiver is not a passive receiver of stimuli but an active agent who moves, orients, and manipulates the environment to gather the sensory information needed for a …
- Activity Monitoring (Activity Recognition, Activity Tracking)
- The use of sensors, algorithms, and computational models to automatically detect and track a person's actions and behaviours within an environment. In assistive technology contexts, activity monitorin…
- Acts of Assistance
- A framework for designing human-machine interactions in cognitive assistive systems, drawing on speech acts theory from linguistics. Each act of assistance is a structured communication from the syste…
- Adaptive Assistive Technology (AAT, Adaptive AT)
- Assistive technology that monitors a user's current and past performance and automatically adjusts its functionality to match their changing needs. Unlike static assistive technologies with fixed sett…
- Adaptive Musical Instrument (Accessible Musical Instrument, Adapted Instrument)
- A musical instrument that has been modified or purpose-built to enable people with disabilities to play music. Adaptive musical instruments may use alternative input methods such as head movement, bre…
- Adaptive Optics (AO)
- A technology that measures and corrects optical distortions in real time, originally developed for astronomical telescopes and now applied in ophthalmology and vision science. Adaptive optics systems …
- Adaptive Rendering (Content Adaptation, Dynamic Rendering)
- The process of automatically modifying how web content is presented based on a user's needs, preferences, or device capabilities. Adaptive rendering can involve transformations such as adjusting layou…
- Adaptive Seating (Specialized Seating, Custom Seating)
- Wheelchair seating systems and positioning devices customized to meet an individual's specific postural needs, providing support for the trunk, head, and limbs to enable optimal function and comfort. …
- Adaptive Technology
- Technology that has been modified or adapted from its original design to be accessible to people with disabilities, as distinct from assistive technology which is purpose-built for disability access. …