Glossary

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Community Health Worker(also: CHW, Lay Health Worker)

A frontline healthcare provider who is a trusted member of the community they serve and who delivers basic health services, education, and referrals, typically with limited formal training. Community health workers extend the reach of formal health systems into homes and…

Context-Appropriate Technology(also: Appropriate Technology, Context-Appropriate AT)

Technology, particularly assistive technology, that is designed or selected to fit the specific social, economic, cultural, and environmental context in which it will be used. Context-appropriate technology considers factors such as local infrastructure, available materials,…

Culturally Responsive Computing(also: Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in Computing, Culturally Relevant Computing)

A pedagogical approach to computing education that grounds instruction in learners' cultural, linguistic, and socio-economic realities rather than treating Global North curricula and technologies as universally applicable. Building on Ladson-Billings' culturally relevant…

Indian Language Accessibility(also: Indic Language Accessibility)

The set of challenges and solutions involved in making digital technology accessible to people with disabilities who use Indian languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, and others. Indian languages use complex scripts with features like consonant conjuncts…

Infrastructural precarity(also: Digital infrastructure barriers)

The condition of unreliable, inconsistent, or inadequate technological infrastructure that shapes and constrains how people — particularly disabled people and those in the Global South — can access and use digital technologies. Infrastructural precarity encompasses unreliable…

Interactive Voice Response(also: IVR, Voice Response System)

A telephony technology that allows users to interact with automated systems using voice commands or keypad input. IVR systems are particularly valuable for accessibility in low-income settings because they work with any phone (including basic feature phones), require no internet…

Spoken Web(also: World Wide Telecom Web, WWTW, Telecom Web)

An alternative web paradigm designed for people in developing regions who are excluded from the traditional World Wide Web by illiteracy, unaffordability, or lack of locally relevant content. In the Spoken Web, nodes are voice applications called VoiceSites that are created by…

Village Health Volunteer(also: VHV, Health Volunteer, Mor Prom)

A locally-recruited lay community health worker who serves as a trusted bridge between formal healthcare services and households in rural or underserved areas. In Thailand, VHVs are trained and coordinated by the Ministry of Public Health (typically with around 70 hours of…

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