Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
6660 terms — page 184 of 333
- Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)
- A condition involving a noticeable decline in cognitive abilities — including memory, reasoning, or judgment — that is greater than expected for a person's age but does not significantly interfere wit…
- Mild Disability (Moderate Disability, Mild Impairment)
- A level of functional limitation that affects daily activities but does not completely prevent a person from performing tasks independently. People with mild disabilities often fall into a gap in acce…
- Mild cognitive impairment (MCI)
- A condition involving a noticeable decline in cognitive abilities — such as memory or thinking skills — that is greater than expected for a person's age but does not significantly interfere with daily…
- Mimetic Language (Sound Symbolism, Phonomimes, Ideophones)
- Words or vocalizations whose sounds imitate or evoke the sensory qualities of what they describe, such as the rustle of leaves, the thud of a drum, or the hiss of escaping air. Mimetic language sits a…
- Mind Map (Mind Mapping, Concept Map)
- A diagram that organises information radially around a central topic, with branches and sub-branches showing related ideas, supporting details, and their connections. Mind maps were popularised in the…
- Mindfulness (Mindfulness Meditation, Mindfulness-Based Practice)
- The practice of directing non-judgmental attention to present-moment experience — bodily sensations, breath, thoughts, and emotions — typically cultivated through structured meditation, body-scan exer…
- Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE, Mini-Mental State Exam, Folstein Test)
- A widely used brief screening tool for cognitive impairment, originally developed in 1975. The MMSE assesses orientation, memory, attention, language, and visuospatial skills through a series of quest…
- Mini-VLAT (Miniature VLAT)
- A 12-item short-form version of the Visualization Literacy Assessment Test developed by Pandey and Ottley that preserves reliability while reducing participant burden. Each chart type from the origina…
- Minimally Verbal (Minimally Speaking, Non-Speaking, Limited Verbal)
- A term describing individuals who use very few or no spoken words as their primary means of communication, despite potentially having communicative intent. This term is commonly used in autism context…
- Minimum Clinically Important Difference (MCID, Minimal Clinically Important Difference)
- The smallest change in a measurement that is perceived as beneficial or meaningful from a clinical perspective. MCID thresholds help researchers and clinicians distinguish statistically significant ch…
- Minimum String Distance (MSD, Edit Distance, Levenshtein Distance)
- A metric for measuring text entry accuracy by calculating the minimum number of single-character insertions, deletions, and substitutions needed to transform the transcribed text into the intended tex…
- Minimum Viable Description (MVD)
- Minimum viable description (MVD) is an emerging framework for audio description that establishes the foundational level of visual information needed to provide equal access to video content without in…
- Minor Resistance (Everyday Resistance)
- A concept describing the everyday, often subtle strategies that people use to exercise agency and push back against power structures that constrain their choices, particularly in the context of assist…
- Mirror Neuron System (Mirror Neurons)
- The mirror neuron system is a network of brain regions that activate both when a person performs an action and when they observe another person performing the same action. It is implicated in motor si…
- Mirroring (Behavioural Mirroring, Imitative Reciprocity)
- The tendency of people in social interaction to unconsciously or deliberately copy each other's postures, gestures, expressions, and speech patterns, which psychology research identifies as a non-verb…
- Mis-accommodation (Failed Accommodation, Accommodation Failure)
- A situation where a disability accommodation that has been formally arranged fails to provide adequate access due to the unpredictability of real-world circumstances, context-specific limitations of t…
- Misfit
- A concept from disability-studies scholar Rosemarie Garland-Thomson describing 'an incongruent relationship between two things' - the material mismatch between a body and an environment not built for …
- Misfitting
- A concept from disability studies scholar Rosemarie Garland-Thomson describing the incongruent relationship between a body and its environment — when the world is not designed to accommodate a particu…
- Misgendering
- The act of referring to someone using language that does not reflect their gender identity, such as incorrect pronouns, titles, or gendered terms. In digital accessibility and AI contexts, misgenderin…
- Misinformation (Disinformation, Health Misinformation)
- Misinformation refers to false or inaccurate information that spreads through digital channels, regardless of whether the spread is intentional (disinformation) or unintentional. On social media platf…