Glossary
Terms used in accessibility research and practice. Each entry has a definition, common aliases, and category tags.
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- Wayfinding(also: Navigation, Orientation)
- The process by which people orient themselves and navigate through physical or digital environments. Accessible wayfinding encompasses multiple modalities: visual signage with sufficient contrast and text size, tactile maps and guidance paths for blind users, audio announcements…
- Weak Central Coherence(also: WCC, Central Coherence Theory)
- A cognitive theory proposing that individuals with autism tend to process information in a detail-focused, piecemeal way rather than integrating it into a coherent whole. In the context of web accessibility, weak central coherence means autistic users may focus intensely on…
- Web disorientation(also: Lost in hyperspace, Navigation disorientation)
- The feeling of being lost or confused while navigating websites, characterized by difficulty knowing one's current location within a site, how to return to previously visited pages, or how to find desired information. Web disorientation is predicted by Internet confidence and…
- Williams Syndrome(also: Williams-Beuren Syndrome, WBS)
- A rare genetic condition caused by the deletion of approximately 26 genes on chromosome 7, characterized by cardiovascular problems, distinctive facial features, and a unique cognitive profile that typically includes intellectual disability alongside strong verbal and social…
- Wizard Design Pattern(also: Wizard Interface, Step-by-step Interface, Guided Task Flow)
- An interface design pattern that breaks complex tasks into a series of simple, sequential questions or steps. Rather than presenting all options simultaneously, a wizard guides users through one decision at a time, reducing cognitive load and the need for prior system knowledge.…
- Word Frequency(also: Lexical Frequency)
- A measure of how often a word occurs in a given language or text corpus. High-frequency words like common function words are encountered regularly and recognized quickly, while low-frequency words are rarer and require more cognitive effort to process. Word frequency…
- Word Retrieval(also: Word Finding, Lexical Retrieval)
- The cognitive process of accessing and selecting the correct word from memory to express an intended meaning during writing or speech. People with dyslexia frequently experience word retrieval difficulties, where they know the concept they want to express but cannot access the…
- Word sense disambiguation(also: WSD)
- A natural language processing task that determines which meaning of a word is being used in a given context when the word has multiple possible meanings (polysemy). In accessibility applications, particularly automatic text simplification, WSD is essential for lexical…
- Word-Finding Difficulty(also: Anomia, Word Retrieval Difficulty, Tip-of-the-Tongue)
- A common symptom of aphasia where a person knows what they want to say but cannot retrieve the correct word. Word-finding difficulties can range from occasional pauses to severe impairment where even common words become inaccessible. The experience is often described as having a…
- Worker Assistance System(also: Digital Worker Assistance, Cognitive Assistance System)
- Technology systems that support workers during the execution of work processes by providing interactive step-by-step instructions through text, images, videos, audio, and spatial hints. These systems are particularly valuable for workers with cognitive disabilities performing…
- Working Memory
- The cognitive system responsible for temporarily holding and manipulating information needed for complex tasks such as learning, reasoning, and comprehension. Working memory is a core executive function that is frequently impaired in ADHD, leading to difficulties with following…
- Working memory(also: Short-term memory)
- The cognitive system responsible for temporarily holding and manipulating information during complex tasks such as language comprehension, reasoning, and decision-making. Working memory has limited capacity, typically described as 7 plus or minus 2 items, and varies between…
- Written Choice(also: Written Choice Technique)
- A therapeutic communication technique used with individuals who have aphasia, in which a conversation partner asks a question and then provides anticipated written answers for the person to choose from. This scaffolded approach reduces the language production demands on the…
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