Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
87 results found in visual impairment.
- Spatial Awareness (Spatial Cognition, Environmental Awareness)
- The understanding of one's surrounding environment and one's own position within it. In accessibility contexts, spatial awareness encompasses multiple dimensions: the scale and shape of an area, one's…
- Spatial Orientation and Navigation (SON, Orientation and Navigation)
- The set of skills and strategies used to understand one's position in space, plan routes, and travel from one location to another. For blind and low-vision individuals, spatial orientation and navigat…
- Swell Paper (Capsule Paper, Microcapsule Paper, PIAF Paper)
- A special paper coated with heat-sensitive microcapsules that swell when exposed to heat, creating raised tactile surfaces from printed black areas. When passed through a heating device (such as a PIA…
- Tactile Graphic (Tactile Image, Raised-Line Graphic, Tactile Diagram)
- A physical representation of visual information that uses raised lines, textures, and relief to convey images, diagrams, maps, and other visual content through touch. Tactile graphics are essential fo…
- Tactile Graphic Reader (Tactile Graphic Display, Tactile Image Reader)
- A device that combines physical tactile graphics (raised-line images on paper) with digital audio feedback, enabling blind and visually impaired users to explore graphical content through touch while …
- Tactile Graphicacy (Tactile Literacy, Tactile Reading Skills)
- The learned ability to read, interpret, and create meaning from tactile images, maps, diagrams, and graphics through touch. Just as visual graphicacy is developed through exposure to visual images, ta…
- Tactile Reading (Touch Reading)
- The process of reading text through the sense of touch, primarily using the fingertips to perceive raised characters such as braille. Tactile reading requires distinct perceptual and cognitive skills …
- Tactile graphic production (Tactile image creation, Accessible graphic transcription)
- The process of converting visual images — such as textbook diagrams, charts, maps, and illustrations — into raised tactile representations that can be explored by touch. Production methods include swe…
- Tap-to-Hear (Point-to-Hear, Tap-to-Listen, Point-and-Click Exploration)
- An interaction paradigm used in tactile graphic readers and touch-based accessibility tools where users touch or tap on elements of a tactile graphic to trigger spoken audio descriptions of the elemen…
- Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI, Vision Teacher, Teacher of the Visually Impaired)
- A specialized educator certified to teach students who are blind or have low vision, providing instruction in the expanded core curriculum including braille literacy, orientation and mobility concepts…
- Thermoform (Vacuum-Formed Plastic, Thermoform Duplicator)
- A method of producing tactile images and braille copies by heating a thin sheet of plastic and vacuum-forming it over a master copy (typically an embossed original) to create a durable raised-line rep…
- Touch Exploration (Explore by Touch, Touch-Based Exploration)
- An interaction method that allows users to discover on-screen content by moving their finger across a touchscreen, receiving audio feedback about elements under the fingertip. Touch exploration is fun…
- Touchscreen text entry (Mobile typing, Virtual keyboard input)
- The process of entering text on a touchscreen device using a virtual keyboard, which presents significant accessibility challenges for blind and visually impaired users who cannot see key boundaries o…
- Trajectory Playback (Haptic Playback, Force-Guided Movement)
- A technique in haptic interfaces where a force-feedback device physically guides a user's hand through a predefined path or shape. The system applies forces to move the user along a trajectory, allowi…
- Typhlology (Typhlopedagogy)
- The study and science of blindness and visual impairment, encompassing education, rehabilitation, and support methods for people who are blind or have low vision. Typhlology draws on knowledge from ed…
- Unified English Braille (UEB)
- The standard braille code used for English-language literary materials in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and other English-speaking countries. UEB was adopted to replace multipl…
- Video accessibility (Accessible video, Video a11y)
- The practice of making video content perceivable, operable, and understandable for people with disabilities. This encompasses captions for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, audio descriptions for blin…
- Visual Hallucination (AI hallucination, MLLM hallucination)
- In the context of multimodal AI systems, visual hallucination refers to the generation of descriptions or responses that contain information not grounded in the actual visual input—fabricating non-exi…
- Visual Interpretation Service (VIS, Visual Assistance Service, Remote Sighted Assistance)
- A service that provides visual information to blind and low vision users through human assistants, AI-powered tools, or a combination of both. Traditional visual interpretation services like Aira conn…
- Visual Privacy (Visual Information Privacy)
- The safeguarding and management of sensitive visual information that could be shared or disclosed in everyday life, particularly through the use of assistive technologies and generative AI tools. For …