Cognitive impairments and learning difficulties are often overlooked

Summary

When people think about accessibility of web content, there's a tendency to concentrate on people with visual impairments. People with cognitive impairments and learning difficulties are often overlooked.
This article by Roger Hudson, Russ Weakley, and Peter Firminger, examines the types of problems visitors may encounter when using the web, with insightful and practical suggestions on how to develop websites that are inclusive for people with cognitive impairments and learning difficulties.

http://juicystudio.com/article/cognitive-impairment.php#intro    

viewed 20th March 2011

 Introduction
The largest disability group in our community are those with cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties, yet they are often forgotten when it comes to website accessibility.
The labels, cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties, appear to encompass such a broad range of conditions that web developers often find it difficult to identify or address the specific needs of the individuals or groups they are used to describe.
Many distinct disabilities can affect a person's ability to access a website and use the information it contains, for example:

• Cognitive impairment, which includes memory, perception, problem-solving, conceptualisation and attention deficits. This may result from a range of conditions such as mental retardation, autism, brain injury, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and old age.
• Learning difficulties can also affect a variety of memory, perception, problem-solving and conceptualisation skills. Learning difficulties include reading problems such as dyslexia, computational, reasoning and organisational deficits and non-verbal learning disorders. These are sometimes also associated with Attention Deficit Disorder and Hyperactivity.

For the web developer, the situation is made more complex by the fact that individual users with these conditions can have very diverse needs. It is common for individuals who have cognitive problems in one area to be highly skilled in other areas. For example, a person who is an excellent reader may have considerable problems understanding the way a web page is organised, or be easily distracted by a small animated image.
Can the web address the needs of all of these different groups? Probably yes, but with different websites.
The web can bring considerable pleasure and aid people with different, and in some cases quite profound, cognitive disabilities. The Peepo project (now closed) provided a wide range of resources and ideas to enable people with severe learning difficulties to browse and use the web independently.
The focus of this article is primarily on improving the web for people who have the functional capacity to independently access and use sites that contain some text content. In particular, the article suggests some simple methods that may improve the accessibility of sites for people who find it hard to read and use written content.
For a more detailed version of this article, go to An Accessibility Frontier: Cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties