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Glossary

Terms used in accessibility research and practice. Each entry has a definition, common aliases, and category tags.

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Landmark(also: Navigation Landmark, Environmental Landmark)
A distinctive environmental feature used as a reference point during navigation and wayfinding. In Orientation and Mobility training for people with visual impairments, landmarks are categorized by the sense used to detect them: structural landmarks (doors, stairs, elevators)…
Landmark Object(also: Navigation landmark, Target object)
A specific physical object that serves as the terminal target of a navigation task — for example, an empty chair in a waiting area, a push-button at an elevator, a ticket barrier, a door handle, or a counter at a shop. For blind travellers, landmark objects are the object of…
Landmark-Based Navigation(also: Landmark Navigation, Landmark-Based Wayfinding)
A wayfinding strategy that uses recognisable environmental features such as buildings, signs, or other prominent objects as reference points for giving directions, rather than relying solely on street names or turn-by-turn instructions. Research has shown that landmark-based…
Landmarks(also: ARIA Landmarks, Page Landmarks, Landmark Regions)
Designated regions of a web page that provide structural navigation points for assistive technology users. ARIA landmark roles include banner, navigation, main, complementary, contentinfo, search, form, and region. Screen reader users can jump between landmarks using keyboard…
Last Meter Problem(also: Last Mile Problem, Final Approach Problem)
In assistive technology for blind users, the challenge of bridging the gap between knowing an object exists and physically reaching or interacting with it. While object detection apps can identify what objects are present and approximately where they are, they typically cannot…
Last-Few-Meters Problem(also: Last 10 Meters Problem, Last Mile Problem (Navigation))
The navigation challenge that occurs when GPS or other positioning systems bring a person with a visual impairment to the general vicinity of their destination (typically within 5-10 meters) but cannot guide them to the precise location, such as a specific entrance, storefront,…
Last-Few-Metres Problem(also: Last Few Meters Problem)
The difficulty that blind and low-vision pedestrians face in the final short distance (roughly the last several metres) of a trip, where GPS accuracy degrades, building entrances are ambiguous, and digital navigation apps leave users in the general vicinity of a destination…
Last-few-meters Wayfinding(also: Last-meter wayfinding, Last-few-meters problem)
The final segment of an indoor or outdoor journey, from the nearest routable point (a building lobby, a doorway, a kerbside pin on a map) to the exact end destination (a specific room, counter, or seat). For blind travellers, this last segment is disproportionately difficult:…
LiDAR(also: Light detection and ranging, Laser scanning)
A remote sensing technology that measures distances by emitting laser pulses and analysing the reflected light, producing precise three-dimensional point clouds of the surrounding environment. In accessibility, LiDAR has multiple applications: it is used to assess pedestrian…
Line Standing(also: Queueing, Standing in line, Line navigation)
The everyday social activity of waiting in an ordered queue — at a cashier, bus stop, check-in counter, or reception desk. For blind people, line standing is an often-overlooked accessibility challenge: the end of the line is a dynamically moving position that cannot be located…
Link Annotation(also: Link Augmentation, Link Labelling)
The practice of adding supplementary information to hyperlinks to help users make informed navigation decisions before clicking. In web accessibility, link annotations may include the accessibility level of the target page, the file type and size of linked documents, or…
Local Navigation(also: Local guidance, Fine-grained navigation)
Navigation at the scale of a few metres, where the task is to bring a blind traveller into direct body-scale interaction with a specific landmark object — sitting in a particular chair, pressing an elevator button, reaching a door handle, boarding through a specific train door.…
Localization(also: Position Estimation, Indoor Localization, User Localization)
Localization is the process of determining a user's position within an environment, typically using a combination of sensors such as GPS, inertial measurement units, BLE beacons, Wi-Fi signals, or computer vision. Accurate localization is the foundational challenge for all…
Location Awareness(also: Location-Aware Computing, Location Sensing)
The ability of a computing system to determine and respond to the physical location of a user or device, typically using GPS, Wi-Fi positioning, cellular triangulation, or other sensing technologies. In assistive technology, location awareness enables context-sensitive support…
Location-Based Service(also: LBS, Location-Based Services)
A software application or platform that uses geographic position data — from GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth beacons, or other localization technologies — to deliver context-aware information or functionality to users based on their physical location. In accessibility, location-based…

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