Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
6660 terms — page 99 of 333
- Disability Studies (DS, Critical Disability Studies)
- An interdisciplinary academic field that examines disability as a social, cultural, and political phenomenon rather than solely a medical condition. Disability studies draws on the social model of dis…
- Disability Support Organisation (DSO, Disability Service Provider, Disability Service Organisation)
- An organisation that provides support services, programs, and resources to people with disabilities, often across multiple sites or locations. DSOs play a critical role in facilitating access to commu…
- Disability culture (Crip culture)
- A cultural movement and identity framework that celebrates the diversity disability brings, recognizing the positive aspects of the disability experience — community, solidarity, creativity, and uniqu…
- Disability disclosure (Self-disclosure)
- The process by which a person with a disability chooses to reveal information about their condition to others, whether in the workplace, social settings, or digital environments. Disclosure decisions …
- Disability dongle
- A well-intentioned but impractical accessibility invention, typically created by non-disabled people, that fails to address the actual needs of disabled users. The term, coined by disability advocate …
- Disability justice (DJ)
- An activist framework developed by disabled queer people of colour — notably Sins Invalid, Mia Mingus, and Patty Berne — that centres the experiences of those at the intersection of disability and oth…
- Disability pride
- A positive affirmation of disability identity that rejects shame, pity, and the desire to be "fixed" or "cured." Disability pride is a core element of disability culture, rooted in the belief that dis…
- Disability-Centered Dataset (Disability-First Dataset, Accessibility Dataset)
- A research dataset specifically designed to capture the practices, environments, and experiences of people with disabilities, rather than retrofitting general-purpose datasets for accessibility evalua…
- Disability-Centered Evaluation (Disability-Centric Evaluation, Disability-First Evaluation)
- An approach to evaluating AI systems, tools, or research artefacts that places disabled people's lived experiences, information needs, and failure contexts at the centre of study design — including wh…
- Disability-First Dataset (Disability-first AI dataset)
- An approach to AI dataset creation, articulated by Theodorou et al. and others, that treats serving a disability community as the primary objective rather than collecting disability data as a minority…
- Disability-Led Design (Disability-Led)
- A design practice in which people with disabilities are not consultants, test subjects, or "users" but the authors, directors, and decision-makers shaping the work. Disability-led projects invert the …
- Disability-Led Research (Disabled-Led Research, Disability-Centered Research)
- Research that is conceived, designed, conducted, and interpreted by disabled people rather than about them by non-disabled researchers. Disability-led research recognizes that disabled people hold uni…
- Disability-Related Embodied Empathy from Existing Media (DREEM)
- A design pedagogy approach, introduced by Baltaxe-Admony et al., that does not translate specific aspects of disability theory into technology requirements but instead develops curricula that sensitis…
- Disability-first Design (Disability-first Approach, Disability-centered Design)
- A design and research methodology that positions disabled people as active contributors and decision-makers rather than passive subjects or end-users in technology development. In contrast to approach…
- Disabled Joy (Disability Joy, Crip Joy)
- Disabled joy refers to the positive experiences, pleasures, and sources of happiness that arise from or are connected to living as a disabled person. This includes pride in disability identity, the ri…
- Disabled innovator (Disability-led innovation)
- A disabled person who creates, develops, and disseminates technology or solutions that address accessibility needs, drawing on their lived experience and situated knowledge. Disabled innovators challe…
- Disabled researcher (Researcher with disability, VI researcher)
- A researcher who has a disability and conducts academic research, often — but not exclusively — in disability-related fields. Disabled researchers bring unique lived experience and situated knowledge …
- Disabling Factor (Disabling Condition, Situational Barrier)
- An external condition that blocks or hinders an otherwise available ability from being used to complete a task. Disabling factors can arise from technology design (such as ability assumptions embedded…
- Disabling by Design (Designed Disability, Systemic Disablement)
- A critical framework describing how systems, policies, and processes create disability through their design rather than through malicious intent. When a system requires cognitive, physical, or sensory…
- Disablism (Disability Discrimination)
- Discriminatory, oppressive, or abusive behaviour directed at people because of their disability, encompassing both individual acts of prejudice and systemic societal barriers. Coined by the Union of P…