Designing for cognitive disabilities

by Ruth Ellisonat UX Australia 2011

on 25 August 2011

@RuthEllison

From @StamfordUX

Image credit: My Brain by My Name is Rom ™ from http://www.flickr.com/photos/romsimplicio/2615636782/ Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic license

Hi, I’m Ruth

User experience designer

Love gadgets

Chocolate appreciator

Skeptic and critical thinker

Work at Stamford Interactive

Love robotsCaricature by the talented Hayley Welsh

Live in Canberra

What are cognitive disabilities?

...any sort of cognitive disorder that impairs understanding and functioning.

Australian Human Rights Commission

http://www.hreoc.gov.au/social_justice/publications/preventing_crime/part1.html#fn1

Not binaryCognitive disabilities range greatly in severity

profoundmild impairment

Dad: bad with numbers

Grandma: bad memory

Richard Branson: dyslexia

There is no one-size-fits-all rule

Proloquo2Go™

Functional groupings

Memory Problem solving Attention

From Bohman & Anderson’s functional cognitive disabilities model, 2005 and http://webaim.org/articles/cognitive/

Reading, linguistic and verbal comprehension

Visual comprehension

Math comprehension

TIPS FOR AN INCLUSIVE USER EXPERIENCE

Tip #1:

Indicate progress

Provide simple reminders such as a progress bar

Consider labelling each step

Memory

Source of images: https://www.threadless.com/cart/step/shipping-info

Tip #2: help recover from errorsError messages should be as explanatory as possible

Tell users what they did wrong and how to fix the problem

Problem solving

Tip #3:

be predictableEnsure that navigation is consistent throughout the site

Similar interface elements and similar interactions should produce predictably similar results

Source: http://wave.webaim.org/cognitive

Memory

Tip #4:

avoid distractions

Avoid distracting background images, noises or moving elements

Attention

Source: http://www.dyslexia-parent.com/mag35.html

Tip #5:

allow user to control movement and timingAllow users to control content updates or changes.

Attention

Tip #6:

calculate it automatically

Math comprehension

The more ways to convey your content, the easier it becomes to communicate to others. 

Pair icons or graphics with text to provide contextual cues and help with content comprehension

Tip #7:

be multi-modal Visual comprehension

Source: http://www.dancing4beginners.com/tango-steps.htmSource: http://wave.webaim.org/cognitive

Reading, linguistic and verbal comprehension

Basic Tango Steps for Men1. Step forward with your left foot2. Step forward with your right foot passing the left foot3. Step forward again with your left foot, this time passing

the right foot4. Step forward and to the right with your right foot5. Left foot close to right foot

Tip #8:

plain language

http://wilsworldofwords.com/2010/06/english-picture-idioms-raining-cats-and-dogs.html

Reading, linguistic and verbal comprehension

Tip #9:

left align

Source: (text) http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/without/without_1990.html, http://www.pws-ltd.com/sections/articles/2009/justified_text.html

Reading, linguistic and verbal comprehension

In many cases, the techniques for making web content more accessible to people with cognitive disabilities are nothing more than techniques for effective communication.

WebAIM http://webaim.org/articles/cognitive/activity

Useful resourcesClear Helper: Web Accessibility for People with Intellectual / Cognitive Disabilities http://clearhelper.wordpress.com/

Cognitive Disabilities Part 1: We Still Know Too Little, and We Do Even Less, Bohman, Paul. 2004. from http://webaim.org/articles/cognitive/cognitive_too_little/

Cognitive Disabilities and the Web: Where Accessibility and Usability Meet? By Mariger, Heather. from http://ncdae.org/tools/cognitive/

What Problems Do People with Disabilities Have? and Why?, from http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/software_guidelines/software.pcs/disabil.htm

How People with Disabilities Use the Web by W3C, from http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/people-use-web/Overview.html

The Forgotten People: Designing for Cognitive Disability, from http://www.thepickards.co.uk/index.php/200607/the-forgotten-people-designing-for-cognitive-disability/

An Accessibility Frontier: Cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties, Hudson, Roger., Weakley, R. And Firminger, P. from http://www.usability.com.au/resources/cognitive.cfm

Evaluating Cognitive Web Accessibility, from http://webaim.org/articles/evaluatingcognitive/

Ruth Ellison’s cognitive disabilities bookmarks: http://www.delicious.com/RuthEllison/accessibility+cognitive

Ruth Ellison

Email: ruthe@stamfordinteractive.com.au

Web: www.stamfordinteractive.com.au

@RuthEllison

@StamfordUX

Find this presentation at www.slideshare.net/ruthellison