Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
259 results found in cognitive accessibility.
- Attention Restoration (Attention Restoration Theory, ART)
- A theoretical framework proposing that directed attention is a finite cognitive resource that becomes depleted through effortful focus and is restored through exposure to environments or activities th…
- Auditory Filtering (Selective Listening, Cocktail Party Effect)
- The neurological ability to selectively attend to specific sounds while suppressing or ignoring background noise. Many autistic individuals and people with sensory processing differences experience di…
- Auditory processing disorder (APD, Central auditory processing disorder, CAPD)
- A neurological condition in which the brain has difficulty interpreting and organizing sounds despite normal hearing ability. Unlike hearing loss, auditory processing disorder affects how the central …
- Authentication (User Authentication, Login)
- The process of verifying a user's identity before granting access to a system, service, or protected content. Common authentication methods include passwords, PINs, biometrics, and security tokens. Au…
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD, Autism, Autistic Spectrum Condition)
- A neurodevelopmental condition characterized by differences in social communication and interaction, along with restricted or repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. Autism exists o…
- Auto-Personalization (Automatic Personalization, Preference Portability)
- The ability to automatically configure a digital device's interface, accessibility settings, and assistive technology software to match an individual user's needs and preferences without requiring the…
- Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR)
- A sensory tingling experience, typically in the scalp and upper spine, triggered by specific audio–visual stimuli such as whispering, soft tapping, or gentle hand movements. ASMR is associated with re…
- Barrage Test (Cancellation Test, Visual Search Test)
- A standardized neuropsychological assessment that measures selective and sustained visual attention by requiring participants to identify and mark target items among distractors on a page. Barrage tes…
- Bionic Reading (Bionic Font, Bold Fixation Points)
- A typographic technique that bolds the first few letters of each word to create artificial fixation points, guiding the eye through text more quickly and helping maintain reading focus. The technique …
- Body Doubling (Parallel Working, Co-Working for Focus)
- A productivity and focus strategy commonly used by people with ADHD and other executive function challenges, where having another person present — physically or virtually — helps with task initiation …
- Borderline Intellectual Functioning (BIF, borderline intellectual disability, slow learners)
- A condition describing individuals with IQ scores roughly between 70 and 85—above the diagnostic threshold for intellectual disability (IQ below 70) but below the neurotypical range. Representing abou…
- Brain Fog (Cognitive Fog, Mental Fog)
- Brain fog is a term used to describe a cluster of cognitive symptoms including difficulty concentrating, memory problems, mental fatigue, and reduced clarity of thought. It is commonly associated with…
- Brain Injury (Acquired Brain Injury, ABI)
- Damage to the brain that occurs after birth, resulting from trauma, stroke, infection, tumour, or other causes. Brain injuries can affect physical, cognitive, emotional, and social functioning, potent…
- Broad-Shallow Interface (Broad-Shallow UI, Single-Page Interface)
- A user interface design pattern that presents a large amount of information on fewer screens, typically requiring scrolling to view all content. Most mainstream apps, including Google Calendar, use th…
- Caption Readability
- The ease with which viewers can read and process caption text on screen, influenced by factors including font size, display duration, caption density, reading speed requirements, and competition with …
- Caregiver Burnout (carer burnout, caregiver exhaustion)
- A state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion that occurs when a caregiver does not get the support or respite they need, often resulting from the sustained demands of caring for a person with…
- Cascading Access Barriers (Compounding Barriers, Barrier Cascades)
- A pattern where an initial accessibility barrier triggers a chain of subsequent barriers, each compounding the difficulty of the previous one. For example, missing a pharmacy notification (first barri…
- Change Blindness (Changeblindness, Inattentional Blindness)
- Change blindness is a perceptual phenomenon in which observers fail to notice changes to a visual scene when the change coincides with a visual disruption such as an eye movement, blink, or brief occl…
- Chunking
- In cognitive science and human-computer interaction, chunking refers to the mental strategy of grouping individual items of information into larger, unified units (chunks) to reduce working memory loa…
- Cloze Test (Cloze Procedure, Cloze Deletion Test)
- A reading comprehension assessment method in which words are systematically deleted from a text and the reader must fill in the missing words based on context. Developed by Wilson Taylor in 1953, cloz…