Glossary

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Read-Along(also: Read Along, Synchronised Highlighting, Karaoke-style Highlighting)

An accessibility pattern in which on-screen text is highlighted word-by-word or phrase-by-phrase in synchronisation with spoken audio. Used in children's reading apps, language-learning tools, accessible ebook formats (e.g., EPUB Media Overlays), and podcast players.…

Readability(also: Text Readability)

The ease with which written text can be read and understood, determined by factors including vocabulary complexity, sentence length, grammatical structure, and text organisation. Readability is distinct from legibility (which concerns the visual clarity of individual characters…

Readability formula(also: readability metric, readability index, readability measure)

A mathematical formula that estimates the difficulty of reading a text, typically based on features like sentence length, word length, syllable count, or vocabulary frequency. Common formulas include Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, SMOG, and Gunning Fog Index.…

Reading Assistance(also: Reading Assistance Technology, Reading Support Tools)

Reading assistance refers to technologies and strategies that help people understand written text more easily. This includes tools like text-to-speech, automatic text simplification, screen readers, reading rulers, and dictionary lookups. For accessibility, reading assistance is…

Reading Comprehension(also: Text Comprehension)

The ability to understand, interpret, and derive meaning from written text. Reading comprehension involves multiple cognitive processes including decoding words, activating background knowledge, making inferences, and monitoring understanding. It is a key target for reading…

Reading Fluency

The ability to read connected text accurately, at an appropriate pace, and with proper expression - distinct from word-level decoding skill on one side and from reading comprehension on the other. Fluency is typically measured along three dimensions: accuracy (proportion of…

Reading Level(also: Grade Level, Reading Grade Level)

An estimate of the education or skill level a reader needs to understand a text, usually expressed as a U.S. school grade (e.g., grade 4) or an equivalent band. Reading level is the target output of most readability formulas and automatic readability assessment systems, and it…

Redundancy Principle

A principle from the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning stating that people learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration, and on-screen text presenting the same words, because presenting identical information in both spoken and written form…

Rejection Sensitivity(also: Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, RSD)

An intense emotional response to perceived or actual rejection, criticism, or failure that is commonly experienced by neurodivergent individuals, particularly those with ADHD and autism. Rejection sensitivity can significantly impact job-seeking behaviour, as the fear of…

Reminiscence(also: Reminiscing, Life Review)

The process of recalling and sharing past experiences, often prompted by sensory cues like photographs, music, or familiar objects. For people with dementia, reminiscence can be more accessible than discussing current events because long-term memories are often better preserved…

Reminiscence Therapy(also: Reminiscence-Based Therapy, Life Review Therapy)

A non-pharmacological therapeutic approach for people with dementia that uses artifacts, photographs, music, and other personally meaningful materials to stimulate recall of past experiences and prompt conversation about life events. Reminiscence therapy aims to maintain the…

Repair Mechanism(also: Conversational Repair)

In conversational interface design, a feature that helps the user and the system recover from misrecognition, ambiguity, or misunderstanding — for example, clarification prompts ("Did you mean the [X] cricket match?"), visible candidate lists, or "try again" affordances that…

Repetitive Questioning(also: Perseverative Questioning)

A behavioural symptom of dementia, particularly Alzheimer's disease, in which a person repeatedly asks the same question over and over, often within short time intervals. Repetitive questioning can stem from short-term memory loss (not remembering the answer or having asked),…

Resilience(also: Psychological resilience, Dementia resilience)

Resilience refers to the dynamic capacity of an individual to adapt positively in the face of adversity and to maintain or recover a satisfactory level of psychological and functional well-being. In the context of dementia, resilience challenges deficit-based models that frame…

Response Bias(also: Acquiescence Bias, Yea-Saying Bias)

A systematic tendency for research participants to respond in a particular way regardless of the actual content of the question, distorting data collection and analysis. In accessibility research involving people with intellectual disabilities, acquiescence bias — the tendency…

Route Knowledge(also: Procedural Knowledge, Sequential Knowledge)

Route knowledge is a type of spatial understanding that consists of sequential, turn-by-turn information about how to get from one place to another along a specific path. In navigation for people with disabilities, route knowledge is what most GPS apps provide — step-by-step…

Route Learning(also: Route Familiarization)

The process by which a traveler — particularly a blind or low-vision person — acquires a mental representation of a specific path through an environment, including its turns, landmarks, distances, surface changes, and points of interest. Route learning is a core component of…

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