Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
18 results found in disability concepts.
- ADHD Tax (Disability Tax, Crip Tax)
- The additional financial, emotional, and intellectual costs that people with ADHD and other neurodivergent conditions must pay to navigate systems designed for neurotypical functioning. Examples inclu…
- Access Intimacy
- A concept coined by disability justice activist Mia Mingus describing the elusive, deeply felt connection that occurs when someone else genuinely understands and responds to your access needs. Access …
- 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…
- Diagnostic Overshadowing
- A clinical phenomenon in which the symptoms or behaviours of a person with a disability are incorrectly attributed to their existing disability rather than being recognised as signs of a separate cond…
- Disability Arts (Disability Art, Crip Art)
- A cultural and artistic movement in which disabled artists create work that draws on, reflects, and is informed by their lived experience of disability. Disability arts encompasses visual art, perform…
- Dynamic Disability (Fluctuating Disability, Variable Disability)
- A disability or impairment whose severity, manifestation, or impact varies over time — sometimes rapidly — rather than remaining constant. Dynamic disabilities are common in many health conditions suc…
- Fluctuating Access Needs (Dynamic Access Needs, Variable Access Needs)
- Accessibility requirements that change over time for a single individual, varying based on factors such as energy levels, symptoms, time of day, environment, medication, menstrual cycle, cognitive loa…
- Health-Related Impairment and Disability (HIID, Health-Related Impairments and Disabilities)
- A category of impairments that arise as a consequence of health conditions, both chronic and acute, rather than from a traditionally defined disability. HIIDs are characterized by four properties: the…
- Internal Access Conflict (Conflicting Access Needs)
- A situation where a single individual's different access needs contradict or undermine each other, making it impossible to fully accommodate all needs simultaneously. For example, a person with chroni…
- Medicalised Aesthetic (Medical Model Design, Clinical Aesthetic)
- A design approach in assistive technology that prioritises clinical functionality over personal style, resulting in devices that visually signal disability through neutral, institutional-looking form …
- Neurodivergent Questioning (ND Questioning)
- A term adapted from gender questioning that describes people who are in the process of figuring out how to describe and label their neurocognitive functioning and who have reason to think they might b…
- Noise Sensitivity (Auditory Hypersensitivity, Hyperacusis, Sound Sensitivity)
- A heightened physiological and emotional response to sounds that others may tolerate without difficulty. Common among autistic individuals and people with other sensory processing differences, noise s…
- Presumed Competence (Least Dangerous Assumption)
- The principle that all individuals should be assumed capable and intelligent regardless of whether their abilities are displayed in ways that conform to societal norms. Advocated particularly by nonsp…
- Relative Virtuosity
- A concept from performance studies arguing that what constitutes a virtuoso performance cannot be separated from the social and material expectations around non-normative bodies. For disabled performe…
- Situational Disability (Situational Impairment, Situational Limitation, SIID)
- A temporary reduction in ability caused by a person's environment or context rather than a permanent condition. Examples include difficulty reading a screen in bright sunlight (visual), being unable t…
- Situational Disability (Situational Impairment, Contextual Disability)
- A temporary limitation in ability caused by environmental circumstances rather than a permanent condition. Examples include being unable to read a screen in bright sunlight (visual), not hearing audio…
- Situational Impairment (Situational Disability, Situationally-Induced Impairment)
- A temporary reduction in a person's ability to interact with technology caused by their environment or context rather than a permanent condition. Examples include using a phone in bright sunlight (vis…
- Variable Ability (Fluctuating Ability, Dynamic Disability)
- The characteristic of many chronic illnesses and disabilities where a person's functional abilities change significantly over time — across days, hours, or even minutes. Variable ability includes both…