(ă-kom‵ă-dā'shŏn )

[L. accommodare, to suit]

ABBR: a; acc

1. Adjustment or adaptation.
2. The adjustment of the eye for various distances whereby it is able to focus the image of an object on the retina by changing the curvature of the lens. In accommodation for near vision, the ciliary muscle contracts, causing increased rounding of the lens, the pupil contracts, and the optic axes converge. These three actions constitute the accommodation reflex. The ability of the eye to accommodate decreases with age.SYN: ocular accommodation; visual accommodation.

   SEE: illus.

3. In the learning theory of Jean Piaget, the process through which a person's schema of understand ing incorporates new experiences that do not fit existing ways of understand ing the world.

   SEE: adaptation.

absolute a.Accommodation of one eye independently of the other.

binocular a.Coordinated accommodation of both eyes together.

excessive a.Accommodation of the eye that is greater than needed.

ill-sustained a.Accommodative insufficiency.

mechanism a.Accommodation of the lens of the eye lens to focus close objects on the retina.

negative a.Relaxation of the ciliary muscle to adjust for distant vision.

ocular a.Accommodation (2).

positive a.Contraction of the ciliary muscle to adjust for near vision.

reasonable a.An employer's educator’s responsibility to provide necessary workplace changes in reassignment, equipment modification, devices, training materials, interpreters, and other adjustments for disabled employees or students.

SEE: disability discrimination.

relative a.The extent to which accommodation is possible for any specific state of convergence of the eyes.

visual a.Accommodation (2).