Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
49 results found in disability theory.
- Forgotten Margins
- A term describing disabled communities and populations that remain overlooked by mainstream accessibility research and practice, typically those at the intersection of disability and other forms of ma…
- Harm Reduction
- An approach that prioritizes minimizing negative consequences of potentially risky behaviors rather than demanding complete abstinence or compliance with prescribed rules. In accessibility and disabil…
- Human Rights Model of Disability (Rights-Based Model of Disability)
- A framework for understanding disability that builds on and extends the social model by emphasising the inherent dignity and rights of people with disabilities. Grounded in the UN Convention on the Ri…
- Identity Management
- The ongoing process of controlling how one presents aspects of their identity—including disability, health conditions, gender, sexuality, occupation, and other characteristics—across different social …
- Identity Obfuscation
- The deliberate concealment or misrepresentation of aspects of one's identity to avoid discrimination, harm, or negative consequences from adversarial stakeholders. In disability and accessibility cont…
- Interdependence Framework (Interdependence in Assistive Technology)
- A theoretical framework in assistive technology design that challenges the traditional emphasis on individual independence as the primary goal of accessibility. The Interdependence Framework, introduc…
- Interdependent Accessibility (Interdependence Framework, Access Interdependence)
- A framework for understanding accessibility as a collective, co-created responsibility rather than an individual accommodation. Interdependent accessibility recognizes that access is produced through …
- Internalized Ableism (Internal Ableism, Self-Ableism)
- The process by which disabled individuals absorb and internalize society's negative attitudes, stereotypes, and devaluation of disability, leading to feelings of shame, self-doubt, or a desire to hide…
- Intersectionality
- A framework for understanding how different aspects of a person's identity — including disability, race, gender, class, immigration status, language, and age — interact to create unique experiences of…
- Language Erasure (Linguistic Erasure, Language Flattening)
- The process by which a language's unique characteristics, variations, dialects, and cultural significance are diminished, homogenized, or eliminated — often through the dominance of a majority languag…
- Marginalized Communities (Marginalized Populations)
- Groups of people who are systematically excluded from full participation in society due to factors such as disability, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, immigration stat…
- Medical Model of Disability (medical model, individual model of disability)
- A framework that views disability as a problem located within the individual, caused by disease, injury, or health condition, that requires medical intervention or rehabilitation to "fix" the person. …
- Moral Model of Disability (Religious Model of Disability)
- A historical framework that attributes disability to moral failing, divine punishment, or supernatural causes such as curses or sins. Under this model, disability is viewed as a consequence of wrongdo…
- Multiply Marginalized (Multiply Marginalised, Multiply Marginalized Disabled People)
- A term used in disability justice and intersectional scholarship to describe people whose lived experience sits at the intersection of multiple marginalised identities — for example, disabled people w…
- Narrative Prosthesis
- A concept from disability studies describing how disability is used as a literary and rhetorical device—a plot driver, metaphor, or character-enriching detail—within narratives that ultimately serve t…
- Negotiated Agency
- A dynamic model of creative control in collaborative content creation where individuals with disabilities fluidly shift between the roles of director, collaborator, and editor in response to the task …
- Neuroaffirmative Practice (Neurodiversity-Affirming Practice, Neuroaffirming Approach)
- An approach to support, therapy, education, and technology design that affirms neurodivergent identities and ways of being rather than seeking to normalize them. Neuroaffirmative practice recognizes n…
- Participatory AI (Community-Centered AI, Participatory Machine Learning)
- An approach to artificial intelligence development that actively involves the communities affected by AI systems in defining problems, setting priorities, designing solutions, collecting data, evaluat…
- Power Structures (Structural Power, Power Dynamics)
- The institutional, social, and economic arrangements that distribute power unevenly across groups in society, determining who has access to resources, decision-making authority, and the ability to def…
- Selective Disclosure
- A strategy where a person carefully controls which aspects of their identity they reveal to different stakeholders, choosing to disclose some identities while obscuring others based on anticipated con…