Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
18 results found in reading accessibility.
- Character Spacing (Letter Spacing, Tracking)
- The horizontal space between individual characters in a line of text. Research has shown that increasing character spacing significantly improves reading speed and accuracy for people with dyslexia. T…
- Cloze Test (Cloze Procedure, Cloze Deletion Test)
- A reading comprehension assessment method in which words are systematically deleted from a text and the reader must fill in the missing words based on context. Developed by Wilson Taylor in 1953, cloz…
- Dyslexia Screening (Dyslexia Assessment, Reading Disability Screening)
- The process of identifying individuals who may be at risk for dyslexia, typically through standardized tests that assess reading fluency, phonological awareness, rapid naming, and other cognitive indi…
- Easy Language (Easy-to-Read, Leichte Sprache, Easy Read, Einfache Sprache)
- A simplified form of written language designed to make information accessible to people with reading difficulties, including those with intellectual disabilities, prelingual hearing impairments, learn…
- Emergent Literacy (Early Literacy, Pre-literacy)
- The developmental process through which young children (typically birth through age 5) acquire foundational skills and concepts about reading and writing before formal instruction begins. For sighted …
- Jenga Format
- Jenga format is a content transformation technique designed to enhance web page readability for non-native English readers. Developed by Chen-Hsiang Yu and Robert C. Miller at MIT, it restructures tex…
- Orthographic Depth (Orthographic Transparency, Spelling Transparency)
- A measure of how consistently a written language maps between its spelling (graphemes) and pronunciation (phonemes). Shallow or transparent orthographies like Spanish, Finnish, and Italian have highly…
- Orthography (Spelling System, Writing System)
- The conventional spelling system of a language, including the rules and patterns that govern how sounds (phonemes) are represented by written symbols (graphemes). Languages vary in orthographic depth:…
- Perceptual Span (Reading Span, Visual Span)
- The area of text around a fixation point from which useful information can be extracted during reading. Research using eye-tracking has shown that skilled deaf readers have a larger perceptual span th…
- Polysemy (Polysemous Words)
- The property of a word having multiple related meanings or senses. For example, the word "bank" can refer to a financial institution or the edge of a river. Polysemy creates particular challenges for …
- Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP)
- A text display method in which words or short phrases are shown one at a time in a fixed location on screen in quick succession, eliminating the need for eye movements (saccades) between words. RSVP w…
- Reading Assistance (Reading Assistance Technology, Reading Support Tools)
- Reading assistance refers to technologies and strategies that help people understand written text more easily. This includes tools like text-to-speech, automatic text simplification, screen readers, r…
- Regression (Regressive Saccade, Regressive Eye Movement)
- In the context of reading and eye tracking, a regression is a backward eye movement (right-to-left in left-to-right scripts) where the reader returns to previously read text. Regressions typically occ…
- Skimming (Scanning, Speed Reading, Content Skimming)
- Skimming is a speed-reading technique in which a reader quickly glances through text to get the general idea or gist without reading every word. Sighted readers skim by scanning headlines, bold text, …
- Visual Attention Span (VAS, Visual Attention Window)
- The number of distinct visual elements that can be processed simultaneously in a single glance. Visual attention span is a cognitive capacity linked to reading ability — when reading, the eyes fixate …
- Visual-Syntactic Text Formatting (VSTF)
- Visual-Syntactic Text Formatting (VSTF) is a content presentation method that formats text based on its syntactic structure, using indentation, line breaks, and visual grouping to align with the gramm…
- Word Frequency (Lexical Frequency)
- A measure of how often a word occurs in a given language or text corpus. High-frequency words like common function words are encountered regularly and recognized quickly, while low-frequency words are…
- eBook Accessibility (Electronic Book Accessibility, Digital Book Accessibility)
- The practice of ensuring that electronic books and digital publications are usable by people with disabilities, including those who use screen readers, refreshable braille displays, or other assistive…