Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
117 results found in Communication.
- Teleconferencing Accessibility (Video Conferencing Accessibility, Remote Meeting Accessibility)
- The practice of ensuring that teleconference and video conferencing platforms and meetings are usable by people with disabilities, including deaf and hard of hearing users, blind and low-vision users,…
- Text Gloss (Text Glosses)
- In Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), a text label or annotation associated with a visual symbol (such as an icon or pictogram) on a communication device. The text gloss serves two purp…
- Text Messaging (SMS, Short Message Service, Texting, MMS, Multimedia Messaging Service)
- Text messaging is the exchange of short written messages between mobile devices over a cellular or data network, most commonly using the SMS (Short Message Service) or MMS (Multimedia Messaging Servic…
- Tone indicator (Tone tag)
- A text-based marker appended to online messages to explicitly signal the intended emotional tone or communicative intent, such as /s for sarcasm, /j for joking, /gen for genuine, or /srs for serious. …
- Translanguaging
- The practice of drawing on multiple languages within a single interaction or communication act, leveraging a person's full linguistic repertoire rather than treating languages as separate, bounded sys…
- Transliteration (Sign Language Transliteration)
- The word-by-word conversion of text from one system into another — for example, rendering a name in one script using the characters of another. In sign-language accessibility the term has a specific m…
- Turn-Taking
- The process by which participants in a conversation manage who speaks when, including how speakers signal they are finished and how listeners indicate they want to contribute. Turn-taking norms are ty…
- Unaided AAC (Unaided Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Body-Based AAC)
- The branch of Augmentative and Alternative Communication that relies solely on the user's body — gestures, facial expressions, vocalisations, manual signs, body orientation — without an external devic…
- Video Phone (Videophone, VP)
- A telecommunications device that enables real-time video and audio communication between two or more parties. For Deaf and hard of hearing people, video phones are essential communication tools that a…
- Videoconferencing (Video Conferencing, Video Calling, Video Meetings)
- Real-time audio-and-video communication between two or more people over a network, typically mediated by a software platform such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, WhatsApp, or WeChat. Videoconfe…
- Visual Communication (VIC)
- A method of conveying information, ideas, and meaning through visual elements such as images, icons, symbols, and pictographs rather than through spoken or written language. In accessibility contexts,…
- Visual Supports (Visual Aids, Visual Cues)
- Pictures, symbols, photographs, written words, objects, or other visual items used to support communication, learning, and behaviour in individuals with developmental disabilities, particularly autism…
- Visual Vocabulary (Picture-Based Vocabulary, Icon Vocabulary)
- A collection of words or concepts represented through images, icons, or pictorial symbols rather than text alone. Visual vocabularies are widely used in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC…
- Vocal Development (Speech Development, Vocal Production Development)
- The process by which individuals acquire and refine the ability to produce speech sounds and vocalizations. In typically developing children, vocal development progresses through stages from cooing an…
- Vocal Stereotypy (Vocal Stereotypies, Vocal Stim)
- Repetitive, non-functional vocalizations that serve no apparent communicative purpose, commonly observed in individuals with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities. Vocal stereo…
- Voice over IP (VoIP, Internet Telephony, IP Telephony)
- Technology that enables voice communication over internet protocol networks rather than traditional telephone lines. VoIP applications such as Skype, Zoom, and Teams allow voice and video calls over t…
- Wideband Audio (HD Voice, High-Definition Audio)
- Audio transmission that captures a broader range of frequencies (typically 50-7000 Hz or higher) compared to narrowband telephony (300-3400 Hz), resulting in clearer and more natural-sounding speech. …