Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
101 results found in conditions.
- Activities of daily living (ADLs, Daily living activities)
- The fundamental self-care tasks that a person performs routinely each day, including feeding, bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, and mobility. Originally proposed by Sidney Katz in the 1950s, ADL…
- Adventitious blindness (Acquired blindness, Late blindness, Acquired visual impairment)
- Vision loss that occurs after a period of sighted experience, as opposed to congenital blindness (present from birth). People with adventitious blindness retain visual memories, mental imagery, and fa…
- Age-Related Capability Decline (Age-Related Impairment, Dynamic Diversity)
- The gradual reduction in sensory, motor, and cognitive capabilities that typically accompanies ageing, including declining visual acuity, hearing loss, reduced dexterity and fine motor control, and ch…
- Age-Related Decline (Age-Related Impairment, Age-Related Changes)
- The gradual reduction in physical, sensory, and cognitive abilities that occurs as part of the natural aging process. Age-related declines that affect technology use include reduced visual acuity (dif…
- Amblyopia (Lazy eye)
- A neurodevelopmental vision disorder in which one eye has reduced visual acuity that cannot be fully corrected with glasses or contact lenses, caused by abnormal visual development in early childhood.…
- Anomia (Word-finding difficulty, Anomic aphasia)
- Anomia is a language impairment characterized by difficulty retrieving words during speech, particularly the names of objects, people, or actions. It is the most common symptom across all types of aph…
- Aphantasia (Mind Blindness)
- Aphantasia is a neurological condition in which a person is unable to voluntarily create mental images or visualize objects, people, or scenes in their mind. It affects an estimated 2-5% of the popula…
- Apraxia (Apraxia of Speech, Childhood Apraxia of Speech, CAS, Verbal Apraxia, Dyspraxia)
- A motor speech disorder in which the brain has difficulty coordinating the muscle movements needed to produce speech, despite the muscles themselves not being weak. The person knows what they want to …
- AuDHD (Autism and ADHD co-occurrence)
- A term used by the neurodivergent community to describe the co-occurrence of autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in the same individual. Research suggests significant…
- 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 …
- Autistic Burnout (Autistic Fatigue, Neurodivergent Burnout)
- A state of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion experienced by autistic people, often resulting from the cumulative effect of masking (suppressing autistic traits to appear neurotypical), sensor…
- Autistic Meltdown (Meltdown, Sensory Meltdown)
- An autistic meltdown is an intense, involuntary response to overwhelming sensory, emotional, or cognitive overload, during which an autistic person may temporarily lose the ability to regulate their b…
- 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…
- 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…
- Central Vision Loss (Central Field Loss, Central Scotoma)
- Loss of vision in the central part of the visual field, typically caused by damage to the macula — the area of the retina responsible for sharp, detailed vision. People with central vision loss experi…
- Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI, Cortical Visual Impairment)
- Cerebral visual impairment (CVI) is an umbrella term for visual deficits resulting from damage to the brain rather than the eyes. It affects visual perception, including visual acuity, cortical image …
- Cochlear implant (CI, Bionic ear)
- A surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss by directly stimulating the auditory nerve, bypassing damaged hai…
- Cognitive load (Mental load, Cognitive burden, Cognitive demand)
- The total amount of mental effort required to complete a task, encompassing the processing of information, decision-making, remembering instructions, and managing attention. Cognitive load theory, dev…
- Cognitive-Communication Needs (CCN, Cognitive-Communication Disorders)
- Difficulties in communication that arise from underlying cognitive deficits in areas such as attention, memory, organization, problem-solving, and executive function, rather than from primary language…
- Convergence Insufficiency (CI)
- A binocular vision disorder in which the eyes have difficulty turning inward (converging) to focus on nearby objects, causing symptoms such as double vision, eye strain, headaches, difficulty reading,…