Glossary

Overview

The purpose of this glossary is twofold:

To provide definitions for key terminology used across the practices shared in the Accessible Teaching Toolkit to support clarity about, and engagement with, the rationales and strategies for engaging in accessible teaching practices; and
o identify language that is frequently used in conversations about access, accessibility, and accommodations, as well as Disability Studies and Disability Justice approaches to proactive accessibility. For those who would like to deepen their engagement in this work, and for anyone developing additional resources in the future, our hope is that this glossary will provide a starting point for shared understanding.

We have also tried, where possible, to provide multiple definitions where there are differences among communities, lived experiences, and scholarly or professional understandings of the language related to access and accessibility.

Definitions

A

Ableism

Ableism is discrimination, prejudice, or social bias against disabled people based on the belief that non-disabled people are more capable, valuable, or "normal." It can appear in a variety of ways, including through attitudes, language choices, policies, or environments that exclude or disadvantage disabled individuals, such as inaccessible technology, unfair assumptions about ability, or barriers to education and employment. Ableism may be intentional or unintentional, but it often results from systems and spaces being designed without considering the needs and experiences of people with disabilities.

Accessible practice

Accessible practice in academia refers to the proactive design and implementation of teaching, research, and institutional policies and practices that ensure equitable participation for all by eliminating barriers for individuals with diverse needs, including disabilities, neurodivergence, and varying learning preferences or needs. Creating flexible and inclusive environments from the outset reduces the need for retrofitted / individualized accommodations.

Accessible technology

Accessible technology refers to digital tools, devices, software, websites, and systems that are designed or adapted so that people with disabilities can use them effectively and independently. This includes features such as screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation, captions, voice control, text-to-speech, adjustable text sizes, and alternative input methods. Accessible technology helps remove barriers and ensures that people with diverse abilities can participate fully in education, employment, communication, and everyday life.

Access

Access is the means and opportunity for each and all community members to fully, meaningfully, and equitably engage with a space, program, community, or service. Barriers to access may be related to protected grounds (e.g., disability, religion), or any other individual characteristic or life circumstance (e.g., financial barriers, caregiving responsibilities, first generation student). Access is about providing meaningful opportunities and support for each and all community members.

Note: This definition has been drawn from the University of Alberta’s Disability Cultures and Access Hub.

Access Barriers

An access barrier is any feature of an environment, technology, information, communication, attitude, policy, process or practice that prevents or limits a disabled person’s full and equitable participation. Barriers may be intentional or unintentional, and several barriers may interact at the same time.

In postsecondary education, barriers can arise within and beyond the classroom. They may affect how students access learning, assessments, technology, services, facilities, campus activities and financial supports.

Ontario’s Postsecondary Education Standards Development Committee recognizes the barriers faced by persons with disability in a postsecondary context, around eight interconnected barrier areas:

Attitudes, behaviours, perceptions and assumptions: Ableist beliefs, stereotypes, stigma or assumptions about disabled students’ abilities and needs.
Awareness and training: Insufficient accessibility knowledge or role-specific training among students, instructors, staff and institutional leaders.
Assessment, curriculum and instruction: Inflexible or exclusionary approaches to course design, teaching, learning materials and assessment.
Digital learning and technology: Inaccessible documents, multimedia, websites, learning platforms, software or other digital tools.
Organizational barriers: Institutional policies, procedures and practices that create unnecessary requirements, delays or exclusions.
Social realms and campus life: Barriers to participating in events, orientation, student organizations, recreation, residence life and other aspects of the campus experience.
Physical and architectural barriers: Features of buildings, classrooms, furnishings, pathways, signage or other physical environments that restrict access.
Financial barriers: Disability-related costs or financial policies and processes that make education, accommodations, technology or campus participation less accessible.

Note: This definition is adapted from the definition of “barrier” in the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005. The eight postsecondary barrier areas are drawn from the Postsecondary Education Standards Development Committee’s Final Recommendations Report.

Access Fatigue

Access fatigue refers to the physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion that disabled people can experience from constantly navigating barriers, requesting accommodations, adapting inaccessible systems, and advocating for their needs. It often results from the ongoing effort required to participate in environments that are not designed with accessibility in mind, such as repeatedly explaining accommodations, troubleshooting inaccessible technology, or managing the extra time and energy needed to complete everyday tasks. Over time, this continual effort can lead to frustration, burnout, stress, and reduced participation in work, education, and social activities. See Konrad, 2021 for more information.

Access Friction

Access friction is often used to refer to two distinct but connected experiences:

The challenges and barriers that individuals face when trying to access resources, services, or activities. These barriers can arise due to various factors, such as physical, sensory, or cognitive disabilities. In the context of disability, access frictions are the obstacles that disabled people face when trying to access everyday services that non-disabled people often take for granted.
When serving one access need creates an access barrier for someone else. This is also referred to as access tension.

Accessibility

Accessibility is the degree to which a space, community, or service has been proactively designed or facilitated to support meaningful engagement through the removal of discriminatory barriers for people with disabilities and those who encounter systemic barriers to access and engagement. Proactive accessibility often includes flexible and responsive designs that empower choices to allow diverse and equitable participation.

Note: This definition has been drawn from the University of Alberta’s Disability Cultures and Access Hub.

Access Needs

Access needs are the specific supports conditions a person requires in order to equitably participate in an activity or experience. Everyone has a unique set of access needs based on their positionality, lived experiences, and goals, but for some learners, basic access needs are generally met by through the default or “standard” designs of spaces, experiences, technologies, etc.

Accommodation

Accommodation is the process of making reasonable adjustments to the delivery of services, the conditions of employment, or the built environment in order to address barriers that inequitably impact individuals based on a characteristic referenced in the protected grounds.

Assistive technologies

Assistive Technology, commonly called “AT,” refers to any device, software, tool or system that increases, maintains or improves accessibility. AT helps enable equitable access to learning by removing disability related barriers and supporting learners to have more independence, self-determination and control over how they interact with the learning environment.

C

Contextual Constraints

Contextual constraints are limitations that shape what proactive accessibility measures or informal and formal accommodations are reasonably possible in a specific situation. These constraints, such as class sizes, classroom infrastructure, and access to resources must be taken into account when determining reasonable accessibility measures or accommodations. Where contextual constraints limit a particular accommodation, efforts should be made to explore alternative accommodations that provide equitable access to the greatest extent possible.

Crip Time

Disabled bodies and minds often work in ways that resist normative orientations to time. Embodied differences (chronic pain, medication schedules and side effects) and systemic factors (public transit, care/support/assistance schedules) can create barriers to conforming to the clock- and calendar-based timelines that organize institutional life. Grounded in experiential knowledge, “crip time” (Price, 2024; Samuels, 2017; Kafer, 2013) expands conceptions of access to reflect the temporal differences associated with disability.

D

Disability Justice

Disability Justice is an intersectional, cross-disability framework that is focused on collective liberation from oppressive and ableist social designs and practices. It was developed by Sins Invalid, a group of disabled, queer, racialized in response to the white heteronormativity of the disability rights movement and disability studies. Disability Justice is framed around 10 core principles: intersectionality, the leadership of those most impacted by ableism and oppressive systems, anti-capitalist politics, a commitment to both cross-movement and cross-disability solidarity, a recognition of wholeness, sustainability, interdependence, collective access and collective liberation.

To find out more about Disability Justice, please see 10 Principles of Disability Justice and What is Disability Justice?

M

Multimodality

Multimodality refers to the use of multiple means, or modes, of communicating and interacting with information rather than relying on a single method. While higher education has traditionally relied primarily on textual and verbal modes of communication, providing a variety of modes can support learner engagement and accessibility. In teaching and learning spaces, multimodal classroom participation and assessment could include combining text, audio, video, images, speech, touch, animation, and interactive elements to support understanding and engagement. Multimodal approaches recognize that people learn and communicate differently, and they help make information more accessible by providing multiple ways to access, process, and express knowledge. For example, a video with captions, narration, visuals, and downloadable text transcripts is a multimodal resource because it supports a wider range of learning preferences and accessibility needs.

N

Neurodivergence

Neurodivergence is a sociocultural term used to describe ways of thinking, learning, processing information, communicating, or experiencing the world that differ from what is socially understood as "typical" or “standard”. The term recognizes that different brain types can bring different strengths, challenges, experiences, and perspectives rather than viewing these variations as deficits or disorders.

The terms neurodiversity and neurodivergence are related but not interchangeable. Neurodiversity refers to the variations in neurotypes that exist across humanity. It can be used to describe groups that include both neurodivergent and neurotypical people.

Note: For more information on neurodivergence and neurodiversity, we recommend Shape Art’s “What is Neurodiversity?”; Sonny Jane Wise’s “Neurodiversity Affirming Practice: Core Principles”; and Harvard Health Publishing’s “What is Neurodiversity?”

U

Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning is an educational framework that focuses on fostering learner agency and building flexibility into learning environments. It is designed to allow for learner variability and diverse access needs. It is built upon three key principles of Multiple Means of Representation (course content and curricula), Multiple Means of Engagement (learner and instructor motivation), and Multiple Means of Action and Expression (forms of participation and demonstration of knowledge), each focused on a different element of the learning environment. Importantly, UDL attends to needs broadly. It supports access without reliance on a medical definition of disability, or any definition for that matter. It thus also can meet needs of other student groups (i.e. Students with caregiving responsibilities, second language learners).

Note: For more information on UDL, please explore Universal Design for Learning.