CPACC Quick Reference

AT for visual disabilities substitutes or supplements visual information — through touch, audio, or enhanced visual presentation — to give people independent access to content and environments.

Physical Environment

In the physical world, AT for visual disabilities includes tools that provide tactile or audio information in place of visual cues.

A person who is blind uses a long cane to detect obstacles while walking and relies on tactile paving strips at pedestrian crossings to identify safe crossing points — these are physical environment AT solutions.

⚠️ Guide dogs are widely recognised AT but are not always available or appropriate — physical environment solutions must not assume a guide dog as the primary access strategy.

ICT Environment

In the ICT environment, AT for visual disabilities includes screen readers, screen magnifiers, braille displays, and high contrast or colour adjustment settings.

A blind person uses a screen reader such as NVDA or JAWS to hear a text-to-speech rendering of web content, while a person with low vision uses built-in magnification to enlarge the display to a usable size — both rely on the underlying content being structured accessibly.

⚠️ Screen readers and magnifiers are both AT for visual disabilities but they interact with content very differently — a page can be magnifier-friendly and still be a screen reader failure if the semantic structure is absent.

AT for auditory disabilities amplifies, supplements, or replaces audio information — through amplification systems, visual alerts, and text-based alternatives to spoken communication.

Physical Environment

In the physical world, AT for auditory disabilities includes hearing loops, visual alert systems, and real-time captioning services.

A theatre fitted with an audio induction loop transmits sound directly to a hearing aid or cochlear implant set to the T-coil position, cutting out background noise and giving the person direct access to the performance.

⚠️ Hearing loops are only useful to people wearing compatible hearing devices — they do not help people who are deaf and do not use a hearing aid, who need visual or tactile solutions instead.

ICT Environment

In the ICT environment, AT for auditory disabilities includes captions, transcripts, sign language interpretation in video content, and visual or haptic notification systems.

A deaf person watching a video conference uses real-time captions generated by automatic speech recognition or a live captioner — without captions, all spoken content is inaccessible regardless of the quality of the video.

⚠️ Automatic captions vary significantly in accuracy and are particularly poor for accented speech, technical vocabulary, and poor-quality audio — they are a starting point, not a reliable substitute for human-reviewed captions.

AT for deaf-blindness routes information through the tactile sense — both for environmental navigation and for accessing digital content — since neither vision nor hearing is available as a primary channel.

Physical Environment

In the physical world, AT for deaf-blindness includes tactile communication systems and support from intervenors who relay environmental information through direct contact.

A deaf-blind person using the hand-over-hand signing method has a support worker sign directly into their palm — this tactile form of sign language conveys spoken communication that neither sight nor hearing can reach.

⚠️ Many deaf-blind people rely on specialist intervenors — trained human intermediaries — for access to the physical world. This human dependency is a significant equity issue when such support is unavailable.

ICT Environment

In the ICT environment, AT for deaf-blindness is primarily the refreshable braille display — a device that renders screen reader output as tactile braille characters that change dynamically as content changes.

A deaf-blind person reads a web page by running their fingers across a refreshable braille display connected to a screen reader — the display outputs one line of braille at a time, updated as they navigate through the content.

⚠️ Refreshable braille displays are expensive and require text-based content — they cannot convey images, and any content that is only visual (charts, infographics) must have meaningful text alternatives to be accessible at all.

AT for mobility and body function disabilities replaces or supports physical movement — in the environment, this means mobility aids; in ICT, it means alternative input methods that don't require precise hand or body control.

Physical Environment

In the physical world, AT for mobility disabilities includes wheelchairs, walkers, prosthetics, and powered mobility devices that extend or replace the person's own physical movement.

A person with spinal cord injury uses a powered wheelchair to navigate buildings independently — the wheelchair is only effective AT if the built environment provides ramps, wide doorways, and accessible lifts.

⚠️ Mobility AT extends ability only as far as the environment allows — a powered wheelchair is useless against a flight of stairs. AT and accessible design must work together; one without the other is insufficient.

ICT Environment

In the ICT environment, AT for mobility disabilities includes alternative keyboards, switch access devices, eye-tracking systems, voice recognition software, and mouth or head sticks.

A person with quadriplegia uses an eye-tracking system to control a computer cursor by looking at targets on screen — every interface element they need to activate must be large enough and spaced sufficiently for reliable gaze targeting.

⚠️ Voice recognition is AT for mobility disabilities as much as it is a general convenience feature — people who use it out of necessity (not preference) are disproportionately affected when microphone access is blocked or voice control is poorly implemented.

AT for cognitive disabilities supports memory, comprehension, organisation, and task completion — tools in this category extend what the person can do by compensating for cognitive processing differences.

Physical Environment

In the physical world, AT for cognitive disabilities includes visual schedules, reminder systems, wayfinding aids, and simplified signage that reduce cognitive demands in navigating daily life.

A person with an intellectual disability using public transport relies on clearly illustrated stop-by-stop maps and audible stop announcements — text-only or complex navigational signage creates a barrier even though the physical infrastructure is accessible.

⚠️ Cognitive AT in the physical environment is often overlooked in favour of motor and sensory access — but for people with intellectual disabilities, a building that is physically navigable can still be cognitively inaccessible.

ICT Environment

In the ICT environment, AT for cognitive disabilities includes text-to-speech tools, reading aids, spellcheckers, word prediction software, and focus tools that reduce distraction.

A student with dyslexia uses a text-to-speech application to have web page content read aloud while following along visually — word prediction software reduces spelling demands when they write, enabling them to communicate more fluently.

⚠️ Cognitive AT is the least standardised and most diverse category — unlike screen readers, there is no single dominant tool. Many cognitive AT users rely on a combination of built-in OS features, browser extensions, and specialist applications.

AT for seizure disabilities focuses on preventing seizure triggers and managing safety — in ICT environments, this means tools and settings that suppress harmful visual content before it reaches the user.

Physical Environment

In the physical world, AT for seizure disabilities includes seizure alert devices, protective headgear, and medical alert identifiers that improve safety during and after a seizure episode.

A person with epilepsy wears a medical alert bracelet so that first responders know not to restrain them during a tonic-clonic seizure — this is low-technology AT that can be critical in an emergency.

ICT Environment

In the ICT environment, AT for seizure disabilities includes browser extensions and operating system settings that detect and block flashing or rapidly changing visual content before it is rendered.

A browser extension for photosensitive users can automatically pause animated GIFs and flag pages containing high-frequency flash content — reducing exposure risk when content creators have not followed accessible design practices.

⚠️ AT cannot fully compensate for inaccessible content in this area — a seizure can occur before the user has any opportunity to activate a safety tool. Accessible design at the content level (not relying on the user to self-protect) is essential.

AT for psychological disabilities supports focus, reduces anxiety, and helps manage task demands — tools in this category often overlap with cognitive AT and are used to regulate mental load and emotional responses during digital interactions.

Physical Environment

In the physical world, AT for psychological disabilities includes sensory tools, structured schedules, and environmental modifications that reduce distress and support regulation.

A person with severe anxiety disorder uses noise-cancelling headphones and a structured task list when working in a shared office — reducing unpredictable sensory input and cognitive uncertainty lowers the baseline stress that makes tasks harder to complete.

ICT Environment

In the ICT environment, AT for psychological disabilities includes focus mode tools, content blocking extensions, and apps that reduce cognitive and emotional overload — such as hiding notification counts or limiting distracting content.

A person with PTSD uses a content warning browser extension to blur or hide potentially distressing images before they appear — this gives them agency over their exposure rather than requiring them to avoid the web entirely.

⚠️ AT for psychological disabilities is the category most dependent on the person being able to anticipate and configure their own environment in advance — this creates a significant barrier for people who are in an acute episode and cannot engage with setup tasks.