Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
61 results found in Reading Accessibility.
- Lexical Simplification (Word-Level Simplification)
- A form of text simplification that focuses on replacing complex, uncommon, or technical words with simpler, more familiar alternatives. Lexical simplification is particularly relevant for readers with…
- Literacy Development (Literacy Learning, Reading Development)
- The process of acquiring reading and writing skills, from early phonological awareness through fluent reading comprehension. Literacy development is a key focus of reading support technology research,…
- Low Literacy (Limited Literacy, Functional Illiteracy)
- A level of reading and writing ability that is below what is typically needed to function effectively in everyday situations requiring text comprehension. Low literacy may result from limited educatio…
- MathSpeak (MathSpeak Rules)
- A set of rules and conventions for verbally describing mathematical notation in a standardized, unambiguous way that can be understood by people who cannot see the visual representation of formulas. M…
- Meares-Irlen Syndrome (Irlen Syndrome, Visual Stress Syndrome, Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome)
- Meares-Irlen Syndrome is a perceptual processing disorder that affects how the brain processes visual information, causing symptoms of visual stress including pattern glare, perceptual distortions, ey…
- Mixed Dyslexia
- A subtype of dyslexia that combines features of both surface and phonological dyslexia, typically presenting as discourse-related difficulties including fixation issues and problems recognizing punctu…
- Multimodal Summarization (Multimodal Summary, MMS)
- A technique for presenting information through multiple complementary formats — typically combining pictures, simplified text, and structural diagrams — to improve comprehension of complex content. Mu…
- Newsela
- An educational content platform that publishes news articles in multiple professionally-edited versions simplified to different U.S. school reading levels, enabling teachers to assign the same story a…
- Non-Visual Reading (Audio Reading, Tactile Reading)
- Methods of accessing written content without relying on visual perception, including braille reading, screen reader audio output, and text-to-speech technology. Non-visual reading is essential for bli…
- On-Demand Simplification (On-demand text simplification, User-initiated simplification)
- An interaction pattern for Automatic Text Simplification reading-assistance tools in which the user explicitly requests a simpler version of a word, phrase, or sentence — typically via hover, click, o…
- Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping (Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence, Alphabetic Principle)
- The relationship between speech sounds (phonemes) and their written representations (graphemes), which is foundational to reading in alphabetic writing systems. Mastering phoneme-grapheme mapping — th…
- Phonological Dyslexia
- A subtype of dyslexia characterized by difficulty with sound-based word decoding, including problems with orthographically similar words (e.g., confusing "addition" and "audition"), number and letter …
- Print Disabilities (Print Disability, Print Impairment)
- A broad term encompassing any condition that prevents a person from effectively reading standard printed text. Print disabilities include blindness and low vision, but also extend to learning disabili…
- Print Disability (Print Impairment, Print-related Disability, Print-related Disabilities)
- A condition that prevents a person from effectively reading conventional printed material due to visual, physical, perceptual, developmental, cognitive, or learning disabilities. Print disabilities in…
- Print Disability (Print Impairment)
- A condition that prevents a person from effectively reading standard printed material. Print disabilities include blindness, low vision, dyslexia, and physical disabilities that make it difficult to h…
- Read-Along (Read Along, Synchronised Highlighting, Karaoke-style Highlighting)
- An accessibility pattern in which on-screen text is highlighted word-by-word or phrase-by-phrase in synchronisation with spoken audio. Used in children's reading apps, language-learning tools, accessi…
- Read-Aloud Technology (Read-Aloud Feature, Text Read-Aloud)
- Technology that converts written text to spoken audio output, allowing users to listen to content rather than or in addition to reading it visually. Read-aloud technology differs from general text-to-…
- Readability (Text Readability)
- The ease with which written text can be read and understood, determined by factors including vocabulary complexity, sentence length, grammatical structure, and text organisation. Readability is distin…
- Readability (Text Readability)
- The ease with which a reader can read and understand written text. Readability encompasses both visual readability (typography, layout, color contrast, spacing) and linguistic readability (vocabulary …
- Reading Comprehension (Text Comprehension)
- The ability to understand, interpret, and derive meaning from written text. Reading comprehension involves multiple cognitive processes including decoding words, activating background knowledge, makin…