Glossary

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Access as Friction

A disability-studies framing, articulated by Jackson, Haagaard, and Williams, that reframes accessibility work as productive friction rather than seamless accommodation. Rather than smoothing every interaction, "access as friction" calls for designs that make users pause,…

Adversarial Stakeholders

Individuals, institutions, or systems that disabled people depend on for access but that simultaneously pose threats of harm. Examples include healthcare providers who discriminate based on stigmatized identities, government agencies that condition benefits on compliance, or…

Affirmative Model of Disability(also: Affirmation Model)

A disability framework that goes beyond the social model by acknowledging disabled individuals's lived experiences and emphasizing their abilities, strengths, and unique perspectives rather than limitations. The affirmative model celebrates disability as a positive identity,…

Agency(also: User Agency, Sense of Agency)

The capacity to act, make choices, and exert control over one's own life and environment. In disability studies, agency is distinguished from independence — a person can have agency (the ability to make decisions and direct actions) while still relying on others for support,…

Agentive Amplifier

A framing of technical artefacts, proposed by Oosterlaken and Van Den Hoven, as things that create possibilities a person would not otherwise have — extending, not replacing, the user's own agency. Under this view the ethical significance of a technology is judged by how it…

Assistive Strategy(also: Access Strategy)

Any approach, technique, or workaround that a disabled person develops to navigate inaccessibility and meet their needs. Unlike formal assistive technologies, assistive strategies may be informal, improvised, and deeply personal—ranging from choosing specific providers to…

Autism Industrial Complex(also: AIC)

A term coined by Alicia Broderick and Robin Roscigno to describe the commercial ecosystem that treats autism as a commodity, establishing it as a normative cultural narrative that necessitates intervention. The autism industrial complex encompasses the interconnected network of…

Bodily Autonomy

The right of individuals to make decisions about their own bodies, including how they use their bodies for work, what medical treatments they receive, and how they manage their physical and mental health. In disability contexts, bodily autonomy is frequently compromised through…

Capability Sensitive Design

A design approach, proposed by Ilse Oosterlaken, that takes human diversity morally seriously and evaluates technologies by how they actually expand or constrain the real opportunities (capabilities) available to individual users. Capability Sensitive Design extends the…

Charity Model of Disability(also: Charity Model)

A framework that views people with disabilities as helpless victims who are dependent on the goodwill and benevolence of others. Under this model, disability is treated as a tragedy requiring charitable intervention, positioning disabled people as passive recipients of aid…

Child Agency

Child agency is a child's capacity to initiate, shape, direct, and sustain activities - including play, conversation, and social interaction - rather than passively accepting adult or peer control. In accessibility research for children, agency is recognised as relational and…

Crip Spacetime

A concept developed by disability-studies scholar Margaret Price to describe the material-discursive reality in which disabled people live according to temporalities and spatialities that remain invisible to privileged groups. Crip spacetime names the significant extra effort…

Crip World-Making

Crip world-making, articulated by Robert McRuer and related disability theorists, describes the generative practices through which disabled people make hostile environments liveable - hacking, repurposing and reconfiguring tools, spaces and social norms to fit their bodyminds…

Critical Disability Studies(also: CDS)

An interdisciplinary academic field that examines disability as a social, cultural, and political phenomenon rather than solely a medical condition. Critical disability studies analyzes how disability is constructed through language, institutions, power relations, and cultural…

Critical Disability Theory(also: Critical Disability Studies, CDT)

An interdisciplinary theoretical framework that examines disability as a social, political, and cultural phenomenon rather than solely a medical condition. Critical disability theory draws on disability studies, critical theory, and intersectional analysis to challenge dominant…

Critical Gerontology

An interdisciplinary approach to the study of aging that critiques the dominant biomedical framing of later life and foregrounds structural, political, and cultural influences on older people's experiences. Critical gerontology rejects the "discourse of decline" in which aging…

Cure Narrative(also: Cure Rhetoric, Fix-It Mentality)

A dominant cultural narrative that frames disability as a problem to be eliminated, cured, or overcome through medical intervention, technology, or personal determination. Cure narratives position the non-disabled state as the default ideal and disability as a departure that…

Cyborg(also: Cybernetic Organism)

A being that integrates both organic and technological components, extending human capabilities through mechanical or digital augmentation. In disability studies and accessibility research, the cyborg concept has been applied to understand how people with disabilities who use…

Deficit-Based Approach(also: Deficit Model, Deficit Framing, Deficit Perspective)

An approach that focuses primarily on what individuals cannot do, what skills they lack, or what is "wrong" with them, rather than their strengths, abilities, and potential. In disability and accessibility contexts, deficit-based approaches frame disabled people through their…

Disability Dongle

A term coined by disability advocate Liz Jackson describing a well-intentioned but ultimately useless technology solution created for disabled people by non-disabled people who have not engaged with the community they intend to serve. Disability dongles are typically conceived…

Disabling by Design(also: 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 capabilities that it simultaneously undermines or fails to accommodate, it is…

Duality(also: Dual Lives)

The practice of managing plural identities across different contexts, where a person lives dual work lives and maintains separate identity presentations depending on the stakeholders they are interacting with. In disability contexts, duality involves strategic navigation of…

Embodied Knowledge(also: Embodied expertise, Lived knowledge)

Knowledge that is grounded in bodily experience rather than externally observable behaviour or abstract rule - the kind of knowing a person who stutters has about the tension before a block, a blind person has about which photo crops preserve meaning, or a Deaf signer has about…

Emotional Agency

The ability of an individual to independently manage their emotional responses and experiences, particularly when encountering sensitive or personal information. In the context of accessibility and generative AI, emotional agency refers to the capacity of blind and low vision…

Epistemic Barrier(also: Knowledge Barrier, Epistemic Divide)

A barrier to collaboration or understanding that arises from fundamental differences in knowledge systems, expertise, values, and ways of knowing between groups. In the context of sign language AI development, epistemic barriers exist between machine learning practitioners (who…

Forgotten Margins

A term describing disabled communities and populations that remain overlooked by mainstream accessibility research and practice, typically those at the intersection of disability and other forms of marginalization such as poverty, criminalization, racial discrimination, or…

Harm Reduction

An approach that prioritizes minimizing negative consequences of potentially risky behaviors rather than demanding complete abstinence or compliance with prescribed rules. In accessibility and disability contexts, harm reduction acknowledges that disabled people often face…

Hermeneutical Injustice

Hermeneutical injustice, a concept developed by philosopher Miranda Fricker, is a form of epistemic injustice in which a person's experience is unintelligible to themselves or others because the collective interpretive resources of their community lack the concepts, vocabulary…

Human Rights Model of Disability(also: Rights-Based Model of Disability)

A framework for understanding disability that builds on and extends the social model by emphasising the inherent dignity and rights of people with disabilities. Grounded in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), this model goes beyond identifying…

Iceberg Theory of Stuttering(also: Sheehan's iceberg)

A model proposed by Joseph Sheehan (1970) describing stuttering as an iceberg whose visible behaviours - blocks, repetitions, prolongations - are only a small fraction above the waterline. The much larger hidden portion comprises cognitive and affective reactions: avoidance,…

Identity Management

The ongoing process of controlling how one presents aspects of their identity—including disability, health conditions, gender, sexuality, occupation, and other characteristics—across different social contexts and to different stakeholders. In accessibility and disability…

Identity Obfuscation

The deliberate concealment or misrepresentation of aspects of one's identity to avoid discrimination, harm, or negative consequences from adversarial stakeholders. In disability and accessibility contexts, identity obfuscation may involve hiding a disability from employers,…

Interdependence Framework(also: Interdependence in Assistive Technology)

A theoretical framework in assistive technology design that challenges the traditional emphasis on individual independence as the primary goal of accessibility. The Interdependence Framework, introduced by Bennett et al., positions assistive technologies as emerging from mutual…

Interdependent Accessibility(also: Interdependence Framework, Access Interdependence)

A framework for understanding accessibility as a collective, co-created responsibility rather than an individual accommodation. Interdependent accessibility recognizes that access is produced through relationships and collaboration between disabled and non-disabled people,…

Internalized Ableism(also: Internal Ableism, Self-Ableism)

The process by which disabled individuals absorb and internalize society's negative attitudes, stereotypes, and devaluation of disability, leading to feelings of shame, self-doubt, or a desire to hide or overcome their disability. Internalized ableism can cause disabled people…

Intersectionality

A framework for understanding how different aspects of a person's identity — including disability, race, gender, class, immigration status, language, and age — interact to create unique experiences of privilege or disadvantage that cannot be understood by examining any single…

Language Erasure(also: Linguistic Erasure, Language Flattening)

The process by which a language's unique characteristics, variations, dialects, and cultural significance are diminished, homogenized, or eliminated — often through the dominance of a majority language or through technologies that oversimplify linguistic complexity. In the…

Loss of Obscurity(also: Loss of anonymity)

A concept introduced by Thomas J. Carroll in his 1961 book "Blindness: What It Is, What It Does, and How to Live with It," in which he identified twenty distinct losses that accompany the onset of blindness. Loss of obscurity refers to the unavoidable conspicuousness of carrying…

Marginalized Communities(also: Marginalized Populations)

Groups of people who are systematically excluded from full participation in society due to factors such as disability, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, immigration status, or other characteristics. In accessibility research, understanding…

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…

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…

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…

Multiply Marginalized(also: Multiply Marginalised, Multiply Marginalized Disabled People)

A term used in disability justice and intersectional scholarship to describe people whose lived experience sits at the intersection of multiple marginalised identities — for example, disabled people who are also Black, queer, poor, immigrant, or women. Centring multiply…

Narrative Prosthesis

A concept from disability studies describing how disability is used as a literary and rhetorical device—a plot driver, metaphor, or character-enriching detail—within narratives that ultimately serve the interests and perspectives of non-disabled people rather than accurately…

Negotiated Agency

A dynamic model of creative control in collaborative content creation where individuals with disabilities fluidly shift between the roles of director, collaborator, and editor in response to the task at hand, their personal preferences for privacy and autonomy, and the…

Neuroaffirmative Practice(also: Neurodiversity-Affirming Practice, Neuroaffirming Approach)

An approach to support, therapy, education, and technology design that affirms neurodivergent identities and ways of being rather than seeking to normalize them. Neuroaffirmative practice recognizes neurodivergent traits (like stimming, intense interests, and different…

Neuroqueer Technoscience

A theoretical framework, developed by Nick Walker and extended in HCI by Barros Pena, Williams and others, that builds on crip technoscience and the neuroqueer paradigm to position neurodivergent people as active agents who remake worlds, technologies, and social relations.…

Normate

A term coined by disability studies scholar Rosemarie Garland-Thomson to name the cultural figure - the imagined 'normal' body - against which other bodies are measured, valued, and judged deficient. The normate is not a real person but a template produced through social…

Participatory AI(also: Community-Centered AI, Participatory Machine Learning)

An approach to artificial intelligence development that actively involves the communities affected by AI systems in defining problems, setting priorities, designing solutions, collecting data, evaluating outcomes, and governing deployment. Participatory AI goes beyond…