Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
52 results found in social accessibility.
- Ableist microaggression (Disability microaggression, Casual ableism)
- A subtle, often unintentional comment, question, or behavior that communicates hostile, derogatory, or negative assumptions about disability. Examples include unsolicited compliments on "bravery" for …
- 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 …
- Access Work (Access Labour)
- The often invisible labor that disabled people and their allies perform to negotiate, secure, and maintain access to spaces, services, and activities. Access work includes tasks such as researching ac…
- Accessibility Advocacy (Accessibility Activism, A11y Advocacy)
- The practice of promoting, educating others about, and pushing for the adoption of accessible practices in digital and physical environments. In online spaces, accessibility advocacy often falls dispr…
- Accessible Tourism (Inclusive Tourism, Disability Tourism, Universal Tourism)
- Accessible tourism refers to the effort to ensure that tourism destinations, products, and services are usable by all people regardless of their physical, sensory, or cognitive abilities. This encompa…
- Allyship (Accessibility Allyship, Disability Allyship)
- The practice of non-disabled people (or people without a specific disability) actively supporting disabled colleagues by advocating for accessibility, following accommodation norms, and helping identi…
- At-Risk Populations (Vulnerable Populations)
- Groups that are more likely to experience harm from digital attacks, surveillance, institutional discrimination, or other threats, and are disproportionately affected when such harms occur. Originally…
- Civil Inattention
- A social behavior theorized by sociologist Erving Goffman describing how strangers in public spaces acknowledge each other's presence through brief eye contact or a nod, then deliberately look away to…
- Collaborative Access (Collective Access)
- An approach to accessibility that frames access as a shared, negotiated process involving multiple stakeholders rather than an individual accommodation provided to a single person. Collaborative acces…
- Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC)
- Communication that occurs through digital devices and platforms, including text messaging, email, video conferencing, voice chat, and social media. Computer-mediated communication raises accessibility…
- Criminalization
- The process by which behaviors, identities, or survival strategies are defined as criminal, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities including disabled people. In accessibility contexts, …
- Cross-Disability Solidarity (Cross-Disability Alliance, Disability Solidarity)
- A framework for collective action in which people with different types of disabilities unite around shared goals of access, inclusion, and justice rather than organizing solely around specific disabil…
- Decolonial Computing (Decolonial AI)
- An evolution of postcolonial computing that moves beyond critique to explore practices and pedagogies that center the voices, knowledge, and experiences of marginalized communities in technology desig…
- Desexualization (Asexualization)
- The social phenomenon in which disabled people are assumed to be uninterested in, incapable of, or undeserving of sexual relationships and intimacy. This manifests as invasive questioning about sexual…
- Design for Social Accessibility (Social accessibility framework, DSA)
- A design framework that extends traditional accessibility approaches by addressing not only the functional usability of technology but also the social contexts and implications of its use. Design for …
- Disability Employment (Disability and Employment)
- The broad domain encompassing how disability intersects with employment, including hiring discrimination, workplace accommodations, underemployment, employment gaps, and alternative work arrangements.…
- Disability Signifier (DS, Disability Marker)
- A visual or auditory feature incorporated into a digital avatar or virtual representation that indicates a disability, such as a virtual wheelchair, walking cane, prosthetic limb, or hearing aid. Disa…
- Duality (Dual Lives)
- The practice of managing plural identities across different contexts, where a person lives dual work lives and maintains separate identity presentations depending on the stakeholders they are interact…
- Embodied Harassment
- Harassment in virtual reality environments that targets a user's avatar body or physical representation, such as invading personal space, mimicking movements, or physically interacting with avatar fea…
- Emotional Accessibility (Psychological Accessibility)
- The consideration of emotional and psychological impacts in accessibility design, recognizing that inaccessible technology affects not only task completion but also users' confidence, autonomy, stress…