Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
63 results found in blind and low vision.
- ABC Notation (ABC Text, ABC Music Notation)
- A shorthand ASCII text format for representing music notation using plain characters that can be read directly by screen readers. In ABC notation, pitch is represented by letters (A-G for different oc…
- Accessible Fitness Technology (Inclusive Exercise Technology, Adaptive Fitness Tech)
- Technologies designed to enable people with disabilities to engage in physical exercise independently and effectively. Accessible fitness technology spans audio-based exercise games, haptic workout gu…
- Accessible Programming (Accessible Software Development, Inclusive Coding)
- Accessible programming encompasses the tools, practices, and accommodations that enable people with disabilities to write, test, debug, and maintain software code. Challenges for disabled developers i…
- Accessible VR Gaming (Accessible Virtual Reality Games, Inclusive VR Gaming)
- The design and development of virtual reality games and experiences that can be independently played and enjoyed by people with disabilities, including those who are blind or have low vision, deaf or …
- Aesthetic Blindness
- Aesthetic blindness is a myth and misconception rooted in ableism that assumes blind people cannot perceive, appreciate, or create beauty because beauty is rendered solely through visual means. This a…
- Audio Description (AD, Descriptive Video, Video Description, Described Video)
- A narration track added to video content that describes important visual information for people who are blind or have low vision. Audio descriptions are inserted during natural pauses in dialogue and …
- Audio Guide (Audio Tour, Audio Description Tour, Museum Audio Guide)
- A portable or installed audio system that provides spoken descriptions, narratives, or contextual information about exhibits in a museum, gallery, or cultural venue. Audio guides range from traditiona…
- Audio-Haptic Feedback Layering (Multimodal Feedback Layering)
- A design technique for managing multiple concurrent non-visual feedback signals by strategically prioritizing, staggering, and adjusting audio and haptic cues to prevent sensory overload. Techniques i…
- BLV (Blind and Low Vision, B/LV)
- Abbreviation for "blind and low vision," an umbrella term referring to people with a range of visual conditions including total blindness, legal blindness, and various forms of low vision. The term is…
- Beauty Accessibility (Accessible Beauty, Inclusive Beauty)
- The design and practice of making beauty and personal grooming products, tools, services, and information accessible to people with disabilities. Beauty accessibility encompasses tactile and braille p…
- Blindness (Blind, Total Blindness, Complete Vision Loss)
- A condition characterised by the complete or near-complete absence of functional vision, ranging from no light perception to minimal light awareness that cannot be used for practical tasks. Blind indi…
- Board Game Accessibility (Tabletop Game Accessibility)
- The practice of making physical board games, card games, and tabletop games playable by people with disabilities. Most commercial board games rely heavily on visual information — printed text, colors,…
- Body Awareness (Body Schema, Body Image)
- The understanding of one's own body including its structure, posture, position in space, and relationship to the environment. Body awareness encompasses both the physical sense of where body parts are…
- Clock Face Method (Clock Position Method, Clock Face Orientation, Clock Method)
- A technique for describing the spatial position of objects relative to a person by using the positions on an analog clock face. For example, an item directly in front of a person is at 12 o'clock, to …
- Clock-Based Directional Audio (Clock-Face Audio Cueing, Clock Position Audio)
- A spatial orientation system that communicates direction to users by referencing positions on a clock face (e.g., "3 o'clock" for right, "12 o'clock" for directly ahead), often combined with distance …
- Embodied Expertise (Embodied Knowledge, Tactile Expertise)
- Skilled knowledge that resides in the body through practiced physical routines, muscle memory, and sensory awareness rather than in explicit cognitive rules or visual information. In accessibility res…
- Embosser (Braille Embosser, Tactile Graphics Embosser)
- A device that creates raised (embossed) output on paper or other materials, used to produce braille text and tactile graphics for people who are blind or have low vision. Braille embossers function si…
- Extended Audio Description (Extended Description)
- A form of audio description in which the video playback is paused to allow time for a description that would not otherwise fit within natural gaps in the audio track. Extended audio descriptions are u…
- Figure Accessibility (Chart Accessibility, Graph Accessibility)
- The practice of making visual figures, charts, graphs, and diagrams in documents and publications accessible to people who cannot see them, particularly blind and low vision users. Figure accessibilit…
- Human-Powered Accessibility (Human Computation for Accessibility, Crowd-Powered Assistive Technology)
- An approach to assistive technology that uses remote human workers — whether paid crowdworkers, volunteers, or trained agents — to provide accessibility services that automated systems cannot yet deli…