Glossary

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Personhood

The recognition of a human being as a full person with agency, dignity, self-expression, and moral standing, irrespective of cognitive, physical, or communicative impairments. In dementia care and accessibility practice, affirming personhood means interacting with the individual…

Power Structures(also: Structural Power, Power Dynamics)

The institutional, social, and economic arrangements that distribute power unevenly across groups in society, determining who has access to resources, decision-making authority, and the ability to define norms. In accessibility contexts, power structures shape which disabilities…

Selective Disclosure

A strategy where a person carefully controls which aspects of their identity they reveal to different stakeholders, choosing to disclose some identities while obscuring others based on anticipated consequences. In disability and accessibility contexts, selective disclosure is…

Selective Engagement

A strategy where a person chooses to interact only with stakeholders, services, or platforms that are known to be safe and supportive, reducing exposure to adversarial or discriminatory environments. In accessibility contexts, this might mean only using healthcare providers…

Skilled Vision(also: Vernacular Vision, Professional Vision)

Skilled vision is a concept from visual culture and anthropology that describes the process of learning to see and interpret visual information in specialized ways within a particular community of practice. Originally applied to professional fields (e.g., radiologists learning…

Social Model of Disability(also: Social Construction of Disability)

A framework that locates disability not in an individual's body or mind but in the barriers created by society — including physical environments, attitudes, policies, and systems that exclude people with impairments from full participation. Developed in contrast to the medical…

Social Model of Disability(also: social model, barriers model)

A framework that distinguishes between impairment (a physical, sensory, or cognitive difference) and disability (the social barriers and exclusion that result from society not accommodating that difference). Under this model, people are disabled by inaccessible environments,…

Stable Systems of Access

Access ecosystems where a disabled person can reliably anticipate available resources, plan long-term, and accumulate stability over time. In a stable system, stakeholders are predictable, resources are consistently available, and the person can make informed decisions about…

Strengths-Based Approach(also: Asset-Based Approach, Strengths-Based Practice)

An approach that focuses on identifying and building upon individuals' existing abilities, interests, and resources rather than concentrating on deficits and limitations. In disability and accessibility contexts, strengths-based approaches design technology and support systems…

Systems of Access

A conceptual framework describing the dynamic network of people, institutions, environments, and resources that disabled people navigate to meet their needs. Unlike linear models of accessibility that focus on removing individual barriers, systems of access recognizes that…

Technocapitalist Disability Rhetoric

A term describing the marketing and promotional language used by technology companies that recasts lived disability experience into marketable suffering and positions technological products as purchasable solutions. Coined by Bonnie Tucker, technocapitalist disability rhetoric…

Translated Deaf Self

A concept coined by Alys Young, Jemina Napier, and Rosemary Oram describing how deaf signers' lifelong experiences of being encountered, represented, and inter-subjectively known by others occur in a translated form. The term captures the ontological consequences of routine…

Unstable Systems of Access

Access ecosystems characterized by unpredictability, where resources and stakeholder relationships may shift without warning, forcing reactive decision-making and increasing risk. In unstable systems, a disabled person struggles to anticipate future resources and relationships,…

Whole-Self(also: Whole Self)

A concept from disability justice that frames a disabled person's identity, needs, and preferences as a rich, multidimensional whole — cultural background, lived experiences, interests, relationships, and aspirations — rather than being reduced to their disability or impairment.…

World-Making(also: Worldmaking)

World-making, drawing on Nelson Goodman's 'Ways of Worldmaking' and extended in disability scholarship by Faye Ginsburg and Rayna Rapp, refers to the active construction of shared social worlds through symbols, practices and routines rather than the passive inhabitation of fixed…