Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
94 results found in navigation.
- Directional Guidance (Navigation Guidance, Orientation Feedback)
- Real-time feedback that helps users maintain correct positioning or navigate toward a target, commonly provided through audio cues (such as pitch changes) or haptic signals (such as vibration patterns…
- Echolocation (Human echolocation, Active echolocation)
- The ability to determine the location and characteristics of objects by emitting sounds and interpreting their echoes. While commonly associated with bats and dolphins, many blind and low-vision indiv…
- Electronic Travel Aid (ETA)
- An electronic device designed to help blind or visually impaired people navigate their environment by detecting obstacles and conveying spatial information through non-visual feedback such as audio cu…
- Environmental Legibility (Legibility of the Environment, Spatial Legibility)
- The ease with which people can perceive, understand, and form mental maps of a physical environment in order to orient themselves and navigate through it. Coined by urban planner Kevin Lynch, legibili…
- GPS (Global Positioning System, GNSS, Satellite Navigation)
- The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system that provides location and time information to receivers on Earth. For accessibility, GPS is foundational to wayfinding apps …
- Gait analysis (Walking pattern analysis, Locomotion analysis)
- The systematic study of human walking patterns, including step frequency, stride length, body sway, and turning behaviour, using sensors or observation. In accessibility research, gait analysis reveal…
- Geographic Information System (GIS)
- A system for capturing, storing, analyzing, and displaying geographically referenced spatial data. In accessibility, GIS technology underpins navigation and wayfinding tools for blind and visually imp…
- Global Navigation (Macro navigation, Route-scale navigation)
- Navigation at the scale of routes and buildings — delivering a user from a starting point to a general destination area (a room, a platform, an exit). In blind-navigation research, global-navigation s…
- GoodMaps
- GoodMaps is an accessible indoor navigation platform that provides detailed indoor maps and turn-by-turn navigation for blind and low-vision users in buildings such as airports, transit stations, hosp…
- Indoor Navigation (Indoor Wayfinding, Indoor Positioning)
- Technologies and systems that help users find their way within indoor environments such as museums, shopping centers, airports, and public buildings where GPS signals are unreliable. Indoor navigation…
- Inertial Sensors (IMU, Inertial Measurement Unit)
- Electronic sensors that measure motion and orientation, typically including accelerometers (measuring acceleration/tilt), gyroscopes (measuring rotation), and magnetometers (measuring magnetic field/c…
- Landmark (Navigation Landmark, Environmental Landmark)
- A distinctive environmental feature used as a reference point during navigation and wayfinding. In Orientation and Mobility training for people with visual impairments, landmarks are categorized by th…
- Landmark Object (Navigation landmark, Target object)
- A specific physical object that serves as the terminal target of a navigation task — for example, an empty chair in a waiting area, a push-button at an elevator, a ticket barrier, a door handle, or a …
- Landmarks (ARIA Landmarks, Page Landmarks, Landmark Regions)
- Designated regions of a web page that provide structural navigation points for assistive technology users. ARIA landmark roles include banner, navigation, main, complementary, contentinfo, search, for…
- Last-Few-Meters Problem (Last 10 Meters Problem, Last Mile Problem (Navigation))
- The navigation challenge that occurs when GPS or other positioning systems bring a person with a visual impairment to the general vicinity of their destination (typically within 5-10 meters) but canno…
- Last-Few-Metres Problem (Last Few Meters Problem)
- The difficulty that blind and low-vision pedestrians face in the final short distance (roughly the last several metres) of a trip, where GPS accuracy degrades, building entrances are ambiguous, and di…
- Last-few-meters Wayfinding (Last-meter wayfinding, Last-few-meters problem)
- The final segment of an indoor or outdoor journey, from the nearest routable point (a building lobby, a doorway, a kerbside pin on a map) to the exact end destination (a specific room, counter, or sea…
- LiDAR (Light detection and ranging, Laser scanning)
- A remote sensing technology that measures distances by emitting laser pulses and analysing the reflected light, producing precise three-dimensional point clouds of the surrounding environment. In acce…
- Line Standing (Queueing, Standing in line, Line navigation)
- The everyday social activity of waiting in an ordered queue — at a cashier, bus stop, check-in counter, or reception desk. For blind people, line standing is an often-overlooked accessibility challeng…
- Local Navigation (Local guidance, Fine-grained navigation)
- Navigation at the scale of a few metres, where the task is to bring a blind traveller into direct body-scale interaction with a specific landmark object — sitting in a particular chair, pressing an el…