Glossary

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Manual Dexterity(also: Fine Motor Skills, Hand Dexterity)

The ability to use hands and fingers to perform precise, coordinated movements. Reduced manual dexterity can result from conditions such as arthritis, neurological disorders, injuries, or aging, and affects the ability to use keyboards, mice, touchscreens, and other input…

Manual Muscle Testing(also: MMT, Muscle Strength Testing)

Manual muscle testing (MMT) is a clinical assessment technique used by occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and other healthcare professionals to evaluate the strength of individual muscles or muscle groups. The examiner applies resistance to the patient's movement and…

Midas Touch Problem(also: Midas Touch Effect)

The Midas Touch problem is a well-known challenge in gaze-based and dwell-time-based computer interfaces where everything the user looks at or pauses the cursor over is interpreted as a selection command. Named after King Midas who turned everything he touched to gold, the…

Mobility Disability(also: Mobility Impairment, Physical Mobility Limitation)

A disability that affects a person's ability to move freely, including walking, climbing stairs, maintaining balance, or using fine motor skills. Mobility disabilities may result from conditions such as spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, amputation,…

Motion-based game accessibility(also: Movement game accessibility, Exergame accessibility)

The design and adaptation of video games that use physical movement as the primary input — such as Kinect, Wii, and VR games — to be playable by people with motor impairments including wheelchair users. Commercial motion-based games typically assume standing play and full-body…

Motor Accessibility(also: Physical Accessibility, Motor Impairment Accessibility)

Motor accessibility refers to the design of digital systems and interfaces to be operable by people with physical disabilities affecting movement, strength, coordination, or fine motor control. Relevant conditions include cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, spinal cord injury,…

Motor Function Time(also: Motor Response Time, Motor Cycle Time)

The time required to execute a physical action such as pressing or releasing a key, clicking a mouse button, or moving a pointing device. In the Model Human Processor, motor function time for able-bodied users averages approximately 70 milliseconds per action. For motor-impaired…

Motor Recovery(also: Motor Rehabilitation, Motor Function Recovery)

The process of regaining voluntary movement control and physical function after neurological injury such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, or spinal cord damage. Motor recovery involves reorganization of neural pathways through cortical plasticity, where undamaged areas of the…

Motor Skill(also: Motor Skills, Gross Motor Skill, Fine Motor Skill)

A motor skill is a learned ability to produce a coordinated movement of muscles to achieve an outcome, ranging from gross-motor actions like walking, jumping, and balancing to fine-motor actions like handwriting, buttoning a shirt, or manipulating a stylus. Motor skills strongly…

Mouse Alternative(also: Alternative Pointing Device, Mouse Replacement)

A mouse alternative is any input device or technique that lets a user perform pointer-control tasks — moving a cursor, clicking, dragging, selecting — without using a conventional mouse. For people with motor impairments, mouse alternatives include trackballs, head-pointer and…

Mouse Emulation(also: Mouse Simulation, Virtual Mouse)

Software or hardware that simulates mouse pointer movement, clicks, and other mouse actions using alternative input methods such as head tracking, eye gaze, joysticks, switch scanning, keyboard commands, or biosignal interfaces. Mouse emulation enables people who cannot use a…

Mouth Interface(also: Mouth-operated interface, Mouth-based input)

An input modality that uses mouth movements - tongue position, cheek puffs, jaw motion, lip gestures, breath, or sip-and-puff - to control a computer, wheelchair, or XR system. Mouth interfaces serve people with limited upper-limb mobility (e.g., spinal cord injury, muscular…

Mouth Joystick(also: Lip Joystick, Mouth-Operated Joystick)

An assistive input device controlled by the user's mouth, lips, or tongue that functions as a pointer or gamepad joystick. The user moves a small stick held between the lips to direct cursor or on-screen movement; selection is typically triggered by a sip-and-puff switch, chin…

Movement Disorder(also: Motor Disorder)

A group of neurological conditions that affect the speed, fluency, quality, and ease of movement. Movement disorders can cause excessive or reduced movement that may or may not be voluntary. Common types include Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, dystonia, and Huntington's…

Multimodal Input(also: Multimodal Interaction, Multi-modal Input)

An interaction approach that allows users to communicate with computing devices or systems through multiple input channels — such as touch, voice, eye gaze, head movement, facial expressions, hand gestures, brain-computer interfaces, and biometrics — either simultaneously or…

Muscle Fatigue(also: Motor fatigue)

A decline in the capacity of a muscle or muscle group to generate force or sustain activity after prolonged or repeated exertion. In human-computer interaction, muscle fatigue is a central concern for input modalities requiring sustained or repetitive motion — notably mid-air…

Muscle-Computer Interface(also: MCI (Muscle-Computer Interface), EMG Interface)

An input modality in which signals generated by muscle contractions — typically recorded via surface electromyography (sEMG) sensors worn on the forearm or other muscle group — are interpreted by a computer to recognise discrete gestures or continuous control signals. Coined by…

Myoelectric Control

The use of electromyographic (EMG) signals from voluntary muscle contractions as control inputs for external devices, most commonly powered upper-limb prostheses but also exoskeletons, wheelchairs, and general computer input. Traditional myoelectric control uses direct mappings…

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