Glossary

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PVI(also: People with Visual Impairments, Person with Visual Impairment, Persons with Visual Impairments)

An abbreviation widely used in HCI and accessibility research for "people with visual impairments," a person-first umbrella term that includes people who are blind, legally blind, or have low vision. PVI is often used interchangeably with BVI ("blind and visually impaired") and…

Passive Haptic Feedback(also: Passive tactile feedback)

Tactile information provided to a user by the inherent physical properties of a device or interface, without any active actuation. Examples include the raised bezel around a touch screen, the tactile bump on the F and J keys of a keyboard, a notched dial, or the edge of a…

Perceptual Gap

A design failure identified by Choudhury (2026) in which an AI system's explanation is delivered through exactly the sensory channel that its user cannot access. For example, a Grad-CAM heat map overlaid on an image tells a blind user where the model looked but cannot be seen by…

Personalized Dynamic Accessibility(also: Dynamic Accessibility, Adaptive Accessibility)

An approach to accessibility where systems automatically detect user abilities and adapt interface settings in real-time to match current needs. Unlike static accessibility settings that remain constant, personalized dynamic accessibility recognizes that an individual's…

Pervasive Accessible Technology(also: PAT)

A strategy for integrating accessibility directly into information technology infrastructure rather than retrofitting it after the fact. Proposed by Michael Paciello in 1996, Pervasive Accessible Technology combines a Standard Human Interface with an Accessible Information…

Pitch

The perceived highness or lowness of a sound, determined primarily by its fundamental frequency (measured in Hertz). Pitch is one of the primary dimensions along which music and speech are organized, underpinning melody, harmony, and prosody. In accessibility work, pitch is…

Presentation Independence(also: Presentation-Independent Information)

The principle that information should be stored and served in formats that can be rendered in visual, auditory, or electronic text form without loss of meaning. Presentation-independent content has no inherent visual or auditory presentation and can be adapted to the needs of…

Print Disabilities(also: Print Disability, Print Impairment)

A broad term encompassing any condition that prevents a person from effectively reading standard printed text. Print disabilities include blindness and low vision, but also extend to learning disabilities such as dyslexia, physical disabilities that prevent holding or…

Privacy

The right and practical ability of a person to control the collection, use, and disclosure of information about themselves, their body, their activities, and their relationships. For accessibility, privacy intersects with disability in specific ways: assistive-technology usage…

Progressive Enhancement

A web design strategy that starts with a baseline of essential content and functionality that works in any browser or with any internet connection, then layers on enhanced features for users with more capable browsers or greater bandwidth. Rooted in the "graceful transformation"…

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