Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
45 results found in Deaf Accessibility.
- Pre-lingual Deafness (Pre-linguistic Deafness, Congenital Deafness)
- Deafness that occurs before a person acquires spoken language, either present from birth or developing in early childhood. People with pre-lingual deafness typically use sign language as their primary…
- Prelingual Deafness (Prelingually Deaf, Congenital Deafness)
- Deafness present at birth or acquired before a child has developed spoken language, typically before around age three. Prelingually deaf individuals commonly learn a signed language as a first languag…
- Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP)
- A text display method in which words or short phrases are shown one at a time in a fixed location on screen in quick succession, eliminating the need for eye movements (saccades) between words. RSVP w…
- Real-Time Captioning (Live Captioning, Real-Time Text)
- The process of converting spoken language into text that is displayed simultaneously or near-simultaneously as the speech occurs. Real-time captioning is essential for deaf and hard of hearing individ…
- Respeaking (Speech-to-Speech Captioning, Voice Writing)
- A real-time captioning method in which a trained operator listens to speech and repeats it clearly into a speech recognition system optimized for their voice, producing captions. Respeaking is commonl…
- Rhetorical Question (ASL) (ASL Rhetorical Question, RHQ)
- In American Sign Language, a grammatical construction in which the signer poses a question and then immediately answers it, used as a cohesive rhetorical device rather than as a genuine inquiry. ASL r…
- Shared Visual Attention (Collective Visual Attention, Visual Joint Attention)
- A core feature of Deaf-centred interaction in which all participants coordinate their gaze, body orientation, and signing space so everyone can see the current signer, referenced content, and each oth…
- Sign Language Classifier (Classifier Sign, Depicting Sign, Classifier Predicate)
- A type of sign in sign languages that is not part of a fixed vocabulary but is created dynamically during discourse to represent a class of objects sharing a common shape, size, or physical characteri…
- Sign Language Corpus (ASL Corpus, Signed Language Corpus)
- A structured collection of recorded signed-language performances — typically video, and increasingly motion-capture data — annotated by expert signers with time-stamped linguistic information such as …
- Sign Language Machine Translation (English-to-ASL Translation, Sign Language MT, Text-to-Sign Translation)
- The automatic translation of written or spoken text into a signed language (or vice versa) using computational methods, typically producing output as an animated signing avatar or, less commonly, as r…
- Sign Language Phonology
- The study of the smallest meaningful units that make up signs in signed languages, analogous to phonemes in spoken languages. In American Sign Language, signs are composed of phonological parameters i…
- Sign Language Synthesis (Sign Language Generation, Sign Language Avatar, Signing Avatar)
- Sign language synthesis is the automated generation of sign language output, typically through 3D animated avatars or computer graphics, from text or other input. The technology involves translating w…
- Sign Language Video (Sign Language Interpretation Video)
- Pre-recorded or live video content presenting information in sign language, used to augment or replace written text for deaf and hard of hearing users. In reading support contexts, sign language video…
- Signed English (SE, Manually Coded English)
- Signed English (SE) is an artificial sign system that represents English words and grammar using manual signs, following English word order and syntax rather than the grammar of a natural sign languag…
- Signing Gesture Markup Language (SiGML)
- Signing Gesture Markup Language (SiGML) is an XML-compliant notation for representing sign language gestures, developed as part of the ViSiCAST project at the University of East Anglia. SiGML is desig…
- Songwriting (Therapeutic Songwriting)
- A therapeutic intervention in which a client, often collaborating with a therapist, composes original lyrics and musical elements as a way to explore emotions, reframe experiences, and build a sense o…
- Sound Recognition (Sound Classification, Audio Event Detection, Environmental Sound Recognition)
- Technology that automatically identifies and classifies sounds in a user's environment, typically using machine learning models trained on audio datasets. In accessibility contexts, sound recognition …
- Spatial Reference (ASL) (Spatial Reference Point, Locus, ASL Spatial Reference)
- In American Sign Language and other signed languages, the use of points in the signing space in front of the signer as invisible placeholders for entities under discussion — people, objects, or concep…
- Subtitles (Captions, Closed Captions, CC)
- Text displayed on screen that represents the spoken dialogue and other relevant audio information in video content. Subtitles (called captions in North America) are essential for deaf and hard of hear…
- Telecommunications Accessibility (Telecom Accessibility)
- The design and provision of telephone, mobile, internet, and other communication services and devices so that they are usable by people with disabilities. Telecommunications accessibility encompasses …