Glossary

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Marginalization(also: Social Marginalization, Social Exclusion)

The process by which individuals or groups are pushed to the edges of society, denied equal access to resources, opportunities, and power. People with disabilities, particularly those with communication disabilities, face compounded marginalization — excluded from education,…

Masking(also: Camouflaging, Social camouflage, Neurotypical passing)

The conscious or unconscious process by which neurodivergent individuals — particularly autistic people — suppress their natural behaviours, communication styles, and reactions to conform to neurotypical social expectations. Masking includes monitoring and adjusting facial…

Medical Gaslighting

The dismissal, minimization, or invalidation of a patient’s reported symptoms or experiences by healthcare providers, often leading patients to doubt their own perceptions. The phenomenon disproportionately affects women, people of colour, disabled people, and neurodivergent…

Medical Model of Disability(also: Individual Model of Disability)

A framework that views disability as a deficit or pathology within an individual that should be treated, cured, or rehabilitated. Under the medical model, disability is seen as a personal health problem, and the primary response is medical intervention to make the individual…

Medical Model of Disability(also: Medical Model, Deficit Model)

The medical model of disability is a framework that views disability primarily as a problem located within the individual, a biological deficit or impairment that needs to be fixed, cured, or compensated for through medical intervention or assistive technology. Under this model,…

Medical Model of Disability(also: medical model, individual model of disability)

A framework that views disability as a problem located within the individual, caused by disease, injury, or health condition, that requires medical intervention or rehabilitation to "fix" the person. Under this model, disabilities are deficits to be cured or managed. The medical…

Medicalization(also: Medical gatekeeping)

The process by which human conditions and differences are defined, categorized, and treated as medical problems requiring clinical intervention. In disability and AI contexts, medicalization is reinforced when technologies institutionalize diagnostic authority (e.g., AI autism…

Mental Health Stigma(also: Psychiatric Stigma, Mental Illness Stigma)

Negative attitudes, beliefs, and discrimination directed toward people with mental health conditions, leading to social exclusion, reduced help-seeking, and diminished self-esteem. For people with OCD, stigma manifests as public misunderstanding of the condition (trivializing…

Meta-Research(also: Research on research, Metascience)

The systematic study of research itself — the tools, workflows, norms, infrastructures, and institutional practices through which scholarly knowledge is produced, evaluated, and disseminated. Meta-research examines questions such as which methods and technologies researchers…

Microaggression

A subtle, often automatic remark, question, or action that communicates prejudice or negative stereotypes toward a member of a marginalized group. Originally coined by psychiatrist Chester Pierce in the 1970s to describe subtle discrimination against African Americans, the…

Mis-accommodation(also: 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 the technology, or incorrect assumptions about the accommodation's…

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 it. Rather than locating disability in the individual, the misfit frames…

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 particular embodiment, creating disability through mismatch rather than individual…

Mixed-Ability(also: Mixed-Ability Environment, Mixed-Ability Workplace, Mixed-Ability Setting)

A social environment, workplace, or group where people with and without disabilities interact, collaborate, or share space. In mixed-ability settings, accessibility becomes a social and collaborative concern rather than just a technical one—assistive technologies that work well…

Moral Model of Disability(also: Religious Model of Disability)

A historical framework that attributes disability to moral failing, divine punishment, or supernatural causes such as curses or sins. Under this model, disability is viewed as a consequence of wrongdoing by the individual or their family, leading to shame, social exclusion, and…

Multiple Impairments(also: Multiple Disabilities, Complex Disabilities, Co-occurring Impairments)

The presence of two or more concurrent impairments — such as sensory, cognitive, physical, or neurological — in a single individual that together create complex accessibility needs not adequately addressed by solutions designed for any single impairment alone. Research shows…

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