A cognitive disability has an impact on an individual’s ability to study and process information. It also limits their capability to interpret information from others’ body language and social cues, as well as communicate through verbal and written language.
Cognitive disabilities can arise as a result of traumatic brain injuries, a genetic disorder, or other circumstances. Some of the most common examples of cognitive disabilities are:
- Dyslexia – a learning disorder that affects an individual’s ability to speak, read, write, and spell.
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) – a disorder that causes impulsiveness, hyperactivity, and difficulty paying attention.
- Autism – a disorder that causes difficulties with social interaction and communication.
People with cognitive disabilities face functional limitations like:
- Getting distracted easily or reduced attention span
- Short- or long-term memory loss
- Lack of problem-solving capability
- Inability to process logical thoughts
- Difficulty expressing their thoughts
- Difficulty writing, reading, and speaking
What Is Cognitive Accessibility?
Cognitive accessibility includes a set of accessibility considerations devised for people with cognitive and learning disabilities.
A company’s ICT can be considered cognitively accessible if it incorporates design features to make sure that people with limited cognitive abilities are able to access them. It is essential to understand that this accessibility is not just about creating an accessible website but also all hardware and software.
Accessibility for People with Cognitive Disabilities
From a person’s comprehension, memory, and perception to their problem-solving ability and attention, cognitive disabilities can impact the way they process information. Following are some aspects to be kept in mind to make a website accessible for people with cognitive impairments:
Poor Memory
People with cognitive disabilities tend to have poor short- and long-term memory, and sometimes even poor immediate memory. This can affect their memory as to why they are on the website and what they are trying to do. By making their checkout process and form-filling process short, companies can help these users finish their tasks without facing inconveniences.
Attention Deficit
Attention deficit is a common symptom in people with cognitive disabilities. This condition prevents them from focusing on any particular task for an extended period. While they could easily get distracted by their own thoughts, having additional distractions on the website, like popups and ads can be even more distracting, making them lose concentration on the original task.
In fact, having so many distractions on a website can even result in cognitive overload – a situation where there is just too much information or too many tasks for a person to process or perform. This can lead to frustration in people with cognitive disabilities, causing them to freeze in their current state.
Role of Professionals
Professional designers, developers, and technical writers can do several things to enable cognitive accessibility and make their company’s ICT Section 508 compliant. Their main objectives and the subsequent steps they can employ are as follows:
- Help visitors/users understand the different aspects of the website and how to use them.
- Help visitors/users find what they need.
- Use content that is clearly and easily understandable.
- Help them avoid making mistakes and easy ways to correct them.
- Help them focus by providing limited interruptions.
- Provide necessary help and support.
- Enable personalization.
To achieve these goals, there is a lot of work involved, which looks like this:
- Optimize the user experience of people with cognitive disabilities.
- Provide a simple and flexible user interface by reducing screen clutter, including only essential buttons, and placing familiar buttons at easily recognizable locations.
- Remove unnecessary buttons from the screen rather than simply graying them out.
- Create and deliver content in multiple ways, such as by video, graphics, audio, etc. without losing the context.
- Provide enough time for users to read and access content.
- Make sure that all text content is easily readable and understandable.
- Make the navigation through web pages easier and more predictable, so users can know where they are and find content easily.
- Make content distinguishable, separating foreground from background, so users can see and hear them easily.
- Minimize distractions by removing unnecessary content and advertisements.
- Make the web page layout consistent.
- Make forms easy to complete.
- Include easily understandable and familiar features, like keeping links underlined in blue when not accessed and turning purple when accessed.
- Minimize options that are physically difficult to do, like scrolling, double-clicking, etc.
- Use simple fonts.
- Avoid using jargon.
- Make sure that the pages will print the same way they are seen on screen.
Cognitive accessibility and Section 508 compliance go hand-in-hand; make your company’s ICT accessible for cognitively disabled users, and your digital products will be compliant with this federal law. And, it is not just about compliance, it is about being inclusive.
