Glossary

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DIY Accessibility(also: Do-It-Yourself Accessibility, Grassroots Accessibility)

An approach in which disabled people, their families, or proximate makers design and fabricate their own accessible artefacts—assistive tools, tactile labels, adapted clothing, switch-accessible toys—outside institutional assistive-technology supply chains, often using…

Debiasing(also: Bias mitigation, Bias correction)

Debiasing refers to techniques and processes applied to AI systems—particularly machine learning models and large language models—to detect, reduce, or eliminate unfair biases that cause the system to produce outputs that discriminate against or misrepresent specific demographic…

Dementia-Friendly(also: Dementia Friendly Community, Dementia Inclusive)

An approach to designing environments, services, programs, and communities that are accessible, supportive, and inclusive of people living with dementia. A dementia-friendly community enables people with dementia to participate in social life, access services, and maintain…

Dementia-Friendly Community(also: Dementia Friendly Community)

An approach to inclusion in which public spaces, services, programs, and technologies are designed so that people living with dementia can continue to participate as active community members - shopping, using transport, attending cultural venues, socialising - alongside their…

Design Exclusion(also: Exclusion Audit, Technology Exclusion)

The process by which certain users are prevented from effectively using a product or service due to mismatches between the design of the technology and their abilities, circumstances, or available resources. Design exclusion can result from physical, sensory, or cognitive…

Design Justice

A framework that centers the perspectives of people who are most impacted by design decisions, ensuring that design processes, practices, and outcomes distribute benefits and burdens equitably. Coined by Sasha Costanza-Chock, design justice challenges traditional design power…

Design Saviorism

A problematic dynamic in design practice where nondisabled designers position themselves as rescuers of disabled people, seeking praise while attempting to fix something that is not broken. Design saviorism perpetuates power imbalances by centering the designer's perspective…

Design System(also: Component Library, UI Kit)

A collection of reusable components, patterns, guidelines, and assets that together define the visual language and interaction standards for a product or organization. Design systems typically include UI components, typography, color palettes, icons, illustrations, and…

Design for Dynamic Diversity(also: D3, DDD)

A design paradigm proposed by Gregor, Newell, and Zajicek (2002) that explicitly accounts for the fact that human abilities are not static but change dynamically over time, particularly as people age. Unlike traditional approaches that design for a fixed "typical" user or treat…

Design for Social Accessibility(also: Social accessibility framework, DSA)

A design framework that extends traditional accessibility approaches by addressing not only the functional usability of technology but also the social contexts and implications of its use. Design for Social Accessibility is built on three tenets: incorporating users with and…

Design for User Empowerment(also: DfUE, Empowerment-Oriented Design)

A design philosophy that prioritizes giving users — particularly people with disabilities — the skills, tools, and agency to create, modify, and customize their own technology solutions rather than being passive recipients of products designed for them. Design for User…

Design justice

A framework that centers the perspectives and leadership of people most affected by design outcomes, challenging traditional design processes that often reinforce existing power structures. Coined and developed by Sasha Costanza-Chock, design justice draws on social movement…

Desire Paths(also: Desire lines)

A term from urban design describing the unofficial trails that pedestrians wear into grass or dirt when built sidewalks do not meet their needs - the visible trace of an infrastructure users have improvised for themselves. In accessibility design, the metaphor is used (e.g., by…

Device Independence(also: Device-Independent Design, Input Agnostic Design)

A web design principle that ensures content and functionality are accessible regardless of the input device or interaction method used to access them. Device-independent design avoids assumptions about how users will interact with content — not relying solely on mouse events,…

Disability dongle

A well-intentioned but impractical accessibility invention, typically created by non-disabled people, that fails to address the actual needs of disabled users. The term, coined by disability advocate Liz Jackson, critiques technologies designed without meaningful input from…

Disability-Led Design(also: Disability-Led)

A design practice in which people with disabilities are not consultants, test subjects, or "users" but the authors, directors, and decision-makers shaping the work. Disability-led projects invert the typical power dynamic of accessibility research: non-disabled researchers and…

Disability-Led Research(also: Disabled-Led Research, Disability-Centered Research)

Research that is conceived, designed, conducted, and interpreted by disabled people rather than about them by non-disabled researchers. Disability-led research recognizes that disabled people hold unique expertise about their own experiences, needs, and solutions that cannot be…

Disability-Related Embodied Empathy from Existing Media(also: DREEM)

A design pedagogy approach, introduced by Baltaxe-Admony et al., that does not translate specific aspects of disability theory into technology requirements but instead develops curricula that sensitise design students to disability cultures and to the lived experiences of…

Disability-first Design(also: Disability-first Approach, Disability-centered Design)

A design and research methodology that positions disabled people as active contributors and decision-makers rather than passive subjects or end-users in technology development. In contrast to approaches where non-disabled researchers create solutions for disabled users,…

Disabled innovator(also: Disability-led innovation)

A disabled person who creates, develops, and disseminates technology or solutions that address accessibility needs, drawing on their lived experience and situated knowledge. Disabled innovators challenge the dominant paradigm where accessibility technology is designed "for"…

Discoverability(also: Feature Discoverability)

The degree to which a user can find and become aware of a feature, setting, or capability within a system. In accessibility, discoverability is a critical challenge because users who could benefit from accessibility features — such as screen magnification, high contrast modes,…

Drone Accessibility(also: UAV Accessibility, Accessible Drone Piloting)

The design and adaptation of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and their control interfaces to be usable by people with disabilities. This includes providing alternative input methods such as voice commands, adapted controllers, and tangible interfaces, as well as multimodal…

Dual User Interface(also: Dual Interface, Concurrent Accessible Interface)

An interface design approach in which two distinct, purpose-built user interfaces are provided simultaneously for different user groups — typically one visual interface for sighted users and one non-visual interface for blind or visually impaired users. Unlike screen reader…

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