Glossary

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

221 results found in Cognitive Accessibility.

ARASAAC (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). ARASAA…
Abundant Design (Abundant UI Design)
A design approach for cognitively accessible interfaces in which primary actions are represented by multiple redundant cues — short text, an icon, a distinctive color, and ample size — so users can id…
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…
Adapted Curriculum (Adapted Computer Curriculum, Modified Curriculum, Curriculum Adaptation)
An adapted curriculum is an educational programme that has been modified to accommodate the learning needs, styles, and abilities of students with disabilities while maintaining the core learning obje…
Adaptive Behavior (Adaptive Skills, Adaptive Functioning)
The collection of conceptual, social, and practical skills that people learn and perform in everyday life. Conceptual skills include language, literacy, and self-direction; social skills encompass int…
Adaptive Disclosure (On-Demand Disclosure, Progressive Disclosure for Accessibility)
An interface design pattern in which supplementary accessibility content — summaries, keyphrase previews, navigation maps, alternative descriptions — is revealed only when the user requests it rather …
Alexia (Acquired Dyslexia, Word Blindness)
An acquired inability to read that results from brain damage, typically from stroke or traumatic brain injury, as distinct from developmental dyslexia which is present from childhood. People with alex…
Ambient Display (Ambient Interface, Peripheral Display)
A display or interface that communicates information through subtle environmental changes — such as colour shifts, lighting changes, or gentle sounds — that can be perceived at the periphery of a user…
Aphasia
A language disorder that affects a person's ability to communicate, including difficulties with speaking, understanding speech, reading, and writing. Aphasia typically results from brain injury, most …
Aphasia-Friendly (Aphasia-Accessible, Aphasia-Friendly Design)
A set of design practices for making written, spoken, and audiovisual content more accessible to people with aphasia. Established principles (Rose, Worrall, Hickson, Hoffmann) include short sentences …
Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA, Behavioral Analysis, Behaviour Analysis)
Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) is a scientific approach to understanding and changing behavior through systematic observation, measurement, and evidence-based intervention. In accessibility and dis…
Attention (Attentional processing, Selective attention)
The cognitive process of selectively focusing on relevant stimuli while filtering out competing information. Cognitive neuroscience typically decomposes attention into three networks: alerting (mainta…
Attention Network Test (ANT, ANT-I, ANT-Child)
A computer-administered cognitive task developed by Fan, Posner, and colleagues that measures three functionally distinct attention networks — alerting (sustained readiness), orienting (shifting atten…
Auditory Channel Conflict (Audio Channel Competition, Auditory Interference)
A situation where multiple audio streams compete for a user's attention through the same sensory channel, reducing comprehension and increasing cognitive load. For blind and visually impaired users wh…
Auditory Comprehension (Listening Comprehension)
The cognitive and linguistic ability to understand spoken language in real time, including recognising words, parsing grammar, holding clauses in working memory, and integrating meaning across sentenc…
Auditory Perception (Auditory Processing)
The ability to interpret and make sense of sound information received through the ears, including distinguishing between similar sounds, recognizing patterns in rhythm and pitch, and processing the te…
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD, Autism)
A neurodevelopmental condition characterized by differences in social communication, sensory processing, and patterns of behavior or interests. Autism exists on a spectrum, meaning it presents differe…
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD, Autism)
A neurodevelopmental condition characterized by differences in social communication, sensory processing, and patterns of behavior and interests. Autism exists on a broad spectrum with highly variable …
Autofill (Form Autofill, Auto-fill)
A browser or operating-system feature that automatically populates form fields (name, address, email, payment details) from stored user data. From an accessibility standpoint, autofill reduces typing …