Glossary

Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.

11 results found in concepts.

Algorithmic Decision-Making (ADM, Automated decision-making)
The use of software systems — from rule-based logic to machine learning models — to make or substantially inform decisions that affect individuals, such as eligibility for benefits, credit, housing, o…
Digital by Default (Digital-first, Digital-only)
A public-sector service design strategy, formalised in the UK from 2012, that treats online channels as the primary (and often sole) means of accessing government services, with phone and in-person su…
Eligibility Theatre
A term coined by Curtis et al. (2026) to describe the performance of visible, narrowly-framed disability that claimants are forced to stage in order to satisfy bureaucratic and algorithmic expectation…
Help-Seeking (Help seeking behavior)
The deliberate process of asking for, searching for, or otherwise obtaining assistance to complete a task, learn a feature, or resolve a breakdown. In accessibility contexts, help-seeking is often sha…
Hostile Design (Hostile architecture, Deterrent design)
A design orientation in which systems — physical, digital, or bureaucratic — are intentionally configured to deter use, discourage certain populations, or reduce uptake, rather than to enable access. …
Queer-crip (Queer-crip theory, Queer crip)
A theoretical lens combining queer theory and crip theory to examine how queerness and disability co-produce experiences of marginalisation, care, and resistance. Queer-crip perspectives critique comp…
Relational Accessibility (Relational Access)
An approach to accessibility that treats access as something co-constructed between people in everyday life, rather than a property of an individual user, tool, or environment. Relational accessibilit…
STEAM (STEAM education)
An extension of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) educational framework that explicitly integrates the Arts (design, music, visual art, storytelling, humanities). STEAM is o…
Sensory Sensitivities (Sensory sensitivity, Sensory processing differences)
Heightened or reduced responses to everyday sensory input — noise, light, glare, texture, smell, temperature, or movement — that significantly affect attention, regulation, comfort, and participation.…
Street Level Imagery (Street view imagery, Panoramic street imagery)
Geo-referenced 360-degree panoramic photography captured from vehicles or pedestrians at street level, made widely available through services like Google Street View and Apple Maps Look Around. Street…
Triple Jeopardy
A framework describing the compounded discrimination faced by individuals who hold three intersecting marginalised identities — in Bowleg et al.'s original formulation, Black lesbians navigating racis…