Glossary

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Real Word Error(also: Real-Word Spelling Error)

A spelling error that results in a correctly spelled but unintended word, such as typing "hear" instead of "here" or "their" instead of "there." Real word errors are particularly common among people with dyslexia and pose a significant challenge because standard spellcheckers…

Real-Time Captioning(also: Live Captioning, Live Transcription)

The process of converting spoken language into text simultaneously as it is being spoken, displayed with minimal delay. Real-time captioning is essential for deaf and hard of hearing individuals to participate in live events, meetings, lectures, and conversations. Methods…

Real-Time Captioning(also: CART, Communication Access Realtime Translation, Live Captioning)

The instant conversion of spoken language into text displayed simultaneously as speech occurs, provided either by a trained human captioner or through automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology. Real-time captioning is a critical accessibility service for Deaf and…

Real-Time Captioning(also: Live Captioning, Real-Time Text)

The process of converting spoken language into text that is displayed simultaneously or near-simultaneously as the speech occurs. Real-time captioning is essential for deaf and hard of hearing individuals to participate in live events, meetings, and educational settings. Methods…

Real-Time Captioning(also: Live Captioning, CART, Communication Access Realtime Translation)

The process of converting spoken language into text display in real time, typically with only a few seconds of delay. Professional real-time captioning (CART) uses stenographers with specialised shorthand keyboards who can type at speaking rates of 170+ words per minute,…

Real-Time Captioning(also: Live Captioning, Live Speech-to-Text)

The process of converting spoken language to text simultaneously or with minimal delay as the speech occurs. Real-time captioning can be produced by human transcriptionists (CART, C-Print, TypeWell), crowd workers, automatic speech recognition (ASR), or hybrid approaches. Unlike…

Reasonable Accommodation(also: Workplace Accommodation, Job Accommodation)

A modification or adjustment to a job, work environment, or the way work is typically performed that enables a qualified individual with a disability to perform essential job functions and enjoy equal employment opportunities. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and…

Reasonable accommodation(also: Reasonable adjustment, Workplace accommodation)

A modification or adjustment to a job, work environment, or workplace process that enables an employee with a disability to perform essential job functions and enjoy equal employment opportunities. Reasonable accommodations can include flexible work hours, quiet workspaces,…

Reassurance Robot

A term coined by Grace Barkhuff (CHI 2026) to describe generative AI systems — such as ChatGPT — that, by default, provide reassurance, confession-hearing, and decision-making on demand, thereby accommodating the compulsions of people with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).…

Reassurance Seeking(also: Reassurance-Seeking Behavior)

A compulsive behavior in OCD where individuals repeatedly seek confirmation from others (or from technology, such as internet searches) that feared outcomes have not occurred or will not occur. Reassurance seeking provides temporary anxiety relief but reinforces the…

Receptive and Expressive Skills(also: Receptive Signing, Expressive Signing, Receptive Skills)

In language learning, receptive skills are the ability to understand a language — reading and listening in spoken languages, watching and comprehending signing in sign languages — while expressive skills are the ability to produce the language. For sign-language learners,…

Recipe Progress Tracking(also: Cooking Progress Monitoring)

The specific application of procedural task tracking to cooking, where a system monitors which recipe steps have been completed and what remains. For BLV cooks, recipe progress tracking addresses a critical gap: existing voice-based recipe tools can read steps but cannot verify…

Reciprocity(also: Conversational Reciprocity, Social Reciprocity)

The back-and-forth exchange of information, questions, and responses that characterizes natural conversation. Reciprocity includes components like asking questions, responding appropriately, giving feedback, and sharing information in ways that maintain conversational flow.…

Recognition-Based Authentication(also: Cognometric Authentication)

A type of graphical authentication where users authenticate by recognizing and selecting previously registered images from a set that includes decoy images. Unlike recall-based systems that require users to remember and reproduce a pattern, recognition-based systems leverage the…

Recreational Accessibility(also: Leisure Accessibility)

The design and provision of recreational activities, spaces, and experiences that are inclusive of people with disabilities. Recreational accessibility extends beyond basic physical access to encompass independent participation in leisure pursuits such as shopping, tourism,…

Recreational Exploration(also: Wandering exploration, Exploratory navigation, Open-ended exploration)

Movement through an environment driven by interest, curiosity, or enjoyment rather than by a fixed destination — for example wandering a museum, browsing a shopping mall, or exploring a neighbourhood. For blind and low-vision people, recreational exploration is harder to support…

Recurrent Neural Network(also: RNN)

A recurrent neural network (RNN) is a type of artificial neural network designed to process sequential data by maintaining an internal state (memory) that captures information from previous inputs in the sequence. Unlike feedforward networks, RNNs have connections that loop…

Red Teaming(also: Generative Red-Teaming, AI Red Teaming)

A structured evaluation practice in which an adversarial team probes a system — traditionally a network or application, increasingly an AI model or conversational agent — with realistic attack scenarios to find failures before malicious actors do. Generative red-teaming…

Red-teaming(also: Red team testing)

A structured adversarial-testing practice in which a dedicated team deliberately attempts to break, manipulate, or provoke harmful outputs from a system — originally from military strategy, now widely used for AI systems including large language models. In an accessibility and…

Redundancy Principle

A principle from the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning stating that people learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration, and on-screen text presenting the same words, because presenting identical information in both spoken and written form…

Redundant Encoding(also: Redundant Coding, Multi-Channel Encoding)

A design principle that communicates information through multiple visual channels simultaneously — such as colour plus shape, pattern, text label, or position — so that no single channel is required for comprehension. Redundant encoding is a foundational recommendation for CVD…

Redundant Input(also: Redundant Input Channels, Multimodal Redundancy)

A design approach in which a user interface accepts the same command through more than one input channel — for example, voice and gesture, keyboard and pointer, or speech and switch — so that users can choose whichever modality suits their current abilities, context, or…

Reference Sonification(also: Audio reference tone, Origin tone)

A sonification design pattern in which a fixed, recognisable audio tone represents a known landmark - typically the origin of a coordinate system or another anchor point - and can be re-played on demand so that a user exploring a non-visual data space can re-orient themselves…

Referential Drift

Referential drift is a failure mode in AI-generated sign language where spatial loci — the established positions in signing space used to refer to people, objects, or locations — shift or are not maintained consistently across a sentence. Because signed languages use spatial…

Reflection-in-Action(also: Reflection-on-Action)

A concept from Donald Schön's theory of reflective practice (The Reflective Practitioner, 1983) describing how skilled practitioners adjust their approach in the moment, based on tacit knowledge and immediate feedback from the situation, rather than by following pre-specified…

Reflexive Ethnography

Reflexive ethnography is an approach to ethnographic research in which the researcher explicitly documents and analyses how their own identity, assumptions, relationships and shifting position in the field shape the knowledge produced. Rather than presenting findings as neutral…

Reflexive Thematic Analysis(also: RTA)

A qualitative data analysis method developed by Braun and Clarke that involves open-coding transcripts, identifying patterns, and organizing findings into themes through iterative refinement. Reflexive thematic analysis emphasizes the researchers's positionality and how their…

Reflexive thematic analysis(also: RTA)

A qualitative research method developed by Braun and Clarke that involves the researcher actively and reflexively generating themes from data, rather than treating themes as pre-existing entities to be discovered. Unlike other thematic analysis approaches, RTA explicitly…

Reflexivity(also: Researcher Reflexivity)

A research practice in which scholars continuously examine how their own identities, positions, assumptions, disciplinary training, and power relationships shape the research they conduct — the questions they ask, the methods they choose, the participants they recruit, and the…

Refractive Error(also: Refractive Disorder, Ametropia)

Refractive error is a common vision condition in which the shape of the eye prevents light from focusing correctly on the retina, resulting in blurred vision. Types include myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), astigmatism (irregular corneal curvature), and…

Refreshable Braille Display(also: Braille Display, Braille Terminal, Refreshable Tactile Display)

An electromechanical device that renders Braille characters by raising and lowering small pins through a flat surface, allowing blind users to read digital text output by touch. These devices connect to computers or mobile devices and work alongside screen readers to provide…

Refreshable Braille Display(also: Refreshable Braille, Dynamic Braille Display, Electronic Braille Display)

An electromechanical device that renders Braille characters by raising and lowering pins dynamically, allowing blind users to read digital text through touch. Conventional refreshable Braille displays present a single line of text (typically 20-80 characters) using piezoelectric…

Refreshable Graphics Display(also: Tactile Graphics Display, Dynamic Tactile Display)

A device that presents tactile graphics and diagrams through an array of pins that can be individually raised or lowered to create dynamic, changeable tactile patterns. Unlike static tactile graphics (embossed paper or thermoform), refreshable displays can show sequences of…

Refreshable Tactile Display(also: RTD, Refreshable Braille Display, Dynamic Tactile Display)

An electronic device that presents tactile graphics and content through an array of small pins that can be independently raised or lowered to create dynamic, changeable tactile surfaces. Unlike traditional static tactile graphics produced on paper through embossing or…

Region of Interest(also: ROI, Area of Interest, AOI)

A specific area within an image, video frame, or user interface that has been identified as particularly relevant or important for analysis or user attention. In eye-tracking research, regions of interest are predefined areas on a stimulus where fixation data is collected to…

Regional Sign Variation(also: Sign Language Dialect, Regional Sign Dialect)

Regional sign variation refers to systematic differences in the form of signs across geographic regions within a single sign language, analogous to dialects in spoken languages. Variation arises from local Deaf school traditions, contact between communities, and historical…

Regression(also: Regressive Saccade, Regressive Eye Movement)

In the context of reading and eye tracking, a regression is a backward eye movement (right-to-left in left-to-right scripts) where the reader returns to previously read text. Regressions typically occur when a reader has difficulty understanding a word or passage and needs to…

Rehabilitation(also: Rehab, Therapeutic Rehabilitation)

A set of interventions designed to restore or optimize functioning and reduce disability in individuals with health conditions. Rehabilitation may address physical, cognitive, sensory, or communication abilities through exercises, therapies, assistive devices, and environmental…

Rehabilitation Engineering(also: Rehab Engineering)

An engineering discipline focused on quantifying, measuring, and modeling human performance to provide better-fitting assistive technology adaptations. Rehabilitation engineering emerged partly as a response to trial-and-error approaches in assistive technology, bringing…

Rehabilitation Gaming(also: Rehab Gaming, Therapeutic Gaming)

The use of digital games that incorporate physical rehabilitation exercises into gameplay, transforming repetitive therapeutic movements into engaging interactive experiences. Rehabilitation games map exercises such as cycling, reaching, balancing, or arm movements to in-game…

Rehabilitation science(also: Rehabilitation research)

An interdisciplinary field focused on understanding and improving function, independence, and quality of life for people with disabilities, injuries, or chronic conditions. Rehabilitation science draws on medicine, engineering, psychology, and social science to develop…

Reification

The process of making concrete that which is abstract. A photograph is a reification of a moment in time and place, with all the selectivity and distortion that the lens and framing impose. A web page is a reification of underlying data and semantic relationships, rendered…

Reinforcement Learning(also: RL)

A type of machine learning where a system learns to make decisions by performing actions in an environment and receiving rewards or penalties based on the outcomes. Unlike supervised learning, which learns from labelled examples, reinforcement learning discovers optimal…

Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback(also: RLHF)

A machine learning technique used to fine-tune large language models by incorporating human judgments about response quality. Human annotators rank or rate model outputs, and this feedback trains a reward model that guides the LLM toward producing preferred responses. While RLHF…

Rejection Sensitivity(also: Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, RSD)

An intense emotional response to perceived or actual rejection, criticism, or failure that is commonly experienced by neurodivergent individuals, particularly those with ADHD and autism. Rejection sensitivity can significantly impact job-seeking behaviour, as the fear of…

Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria(also: RSD)

An intense, disproportionate emotional response to perceived or actual rejection, criticism, or failure, commonly reported by people with ADHD and often linked to trauma from chronic social rejection and the ongoing stigma of neurodivergence. RSD is not a formal diagnostic…

Relational Accessibility(also: Relational Access)

An approach to accessibility that treats access as something co-constructed between people in everyday life, rather than a property of an individual user, tool, or environment. Relational accessibility recognises that communication, care, and adaptation are ongoing practices…

Relational Diagram(also: Relational Information Display, RID)

A graphical representation that depicts items (nodes) and the relationships (links) between them using a two-dimensional spatial layout. Common forms include entity-relationship diagrams, flowcharts, state diagrams, network diagrams, and mind maps. Relational diagrams encode…

Relational Sovereignty

A framework proposed by Jang, Carrington and Begel (2026) as a new goal (telos) for socially assistive technology, defined as the recognised authority of a disabled person to choose their relational mode — acting independently or interdependently — and to set the terms on which…

Relative Font Sizing(also: Relative Units, Scalable Typography, Flexible Font Sizes)

The practice of specifying text sizes using relative units (such as em, rem, or percentages) rather than absolute units (such as pixels or points), allowing text to scale when users adjust their browser or system font size settings. Relative font sizing is an important…