Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
148 results found in disability studies.
- Disability Culture (Crip Culture)
- Disability culture encompasses the shared experiences, values, art, language, humor, and traditions that have developed among people with disabilities as a distinct social group. It includes disabilit…
- Disability Divide (Digital Disability Divide)
- The sociotechnical disparity between people with and without disabilities in terms of access to, use of, and benefits from digital technologies. While digitalization has transformed work, education, a…
- Disability Expertise
- The concept that disabled people hold specialized, experiential knowledge about their own conditions, access needs, and the social environments they navigate — knowledge that non-disabled researchers,…
- Disability Intimacy (Crip Intimacy, Disabled Intimacy)
- The multifaceted experiences of intimacy as lived by disabled people, encompassing not only sexuality and romantic relationships but also emotional well-being, support networks, interpersonal trust, f…
- Disability Language (Disability Terminology, Disability Nomenclature)
- The words and phrases used to refer to disabled people and disability, which carry significant social, political, and cultural implications. Disability language encompasses identity-first language (e.…
- Disability Porn
- A critical term used within disability studies and disability communities to describe media content that frames disabled people as objects of pity, tragedy, or spectacle for a non-disabled audience's …
- Disability Simulation (Disability Simulator, Empathy Exercise)
- A method of accessibility evaluation where non-disabled people experience approximations of the barriers faced by people with disabilities when using technology or navigating environments. In web acce…
- Disability culture (Crip culture)
- A cultural movement and identity framework that celebrates the diversity disability brings, recognizing the positive aspects of the disability experience — community, solidarity, creativity, and uniqu…
- Disability dongle
- A well-intentioned but impractical accessibility invention, typically created by non-disabled people, that fails to address the actual needs of disabled users. The term, coined by disability advocate …
- Disability pride
- A positive affirmation of disability identity that rejects shame, pity, and the desire to be "fixed" or "cured." Disability pride is a core element of disability culture, rooted in the belief that dis…
- Disabled Joy (Disability Joy, Crip Joy)
- Disabled joy refers to the positive experiences, pleasures, and sources of happiness that arise from or are connected to living as a disabled person. This includes pride in disability identity, the ri…
- Disabled innovator (Disability-led innovation)
- A disabled person who creates, develops, and disseminates technology or solutions that address accessibility needs, drawing on their lived experience and situated knowledge. Disabled innovators challe…
- Disabled researcher (Researcher with disability, VI researcher)
- A researcher who has a disability and conducts academic research, often — but not exclusively — in disability-related fields. Disabled researchers bring unique lived experience and situated knowledge …
- Disablism (Disability Discrimination)
- Discriminatory, oppressive, or abusive behaviour directed at people because of their disability, encompassing both individual acts of prejudice and systemic societal barriers. Coined by the Union of P…
- Disclosure of Disability (Disability Disclosure, Self-Disclosure)
- The decision by a person with a disability to reveal their disability status to others, whether in educational, professional, or social settings. Disclosure is a complex and deeply personal decision i…
- Double empathy problem (Double empathy theory)
- A theory proposed by Damian Milton (2012) that reframes communication difficulties between autistic and neurotypical individuals as arising from a mutual lack of understanding rather than a deficit in…
- 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…
- Emancipatory Research (Emancipatory Disability Research)
- A research paradigm that positions people with disabilities not merely as research subjects but as active agents who lead and control research about their own lives and experiences. Emerging from the …
- 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…
- Empathy Simulation (Disability Simulation, Impairment Simulation)
- A design technique where non-disabled people temporarily simulate a disability experience — such as wearing a blindfold, using a wheelchair, or restricting hand movement — to develop empathy and under…