THE COGNITIVE AND LEARNING DISABILITIES
ACCESSIBILITY TASK FORCE (COGA)
Update for WCAG
March 2014
Lisa Seeman
THE COGNITIVE AND LEARNING DISABILITIES
ACCESSIBILITY TASK FORCE (COGA)
The Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force is a task force of the
Protocols and Formats Working Group (PFWG) and the Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines Working Group.
Aim: To improve Web accessibility for people with cognitive and learning disabilities.
CONTENT
 COGA - The work ahead of us, where we are
 Some issues
 What might we end up with?
COGNITIVE DISABILITIES
Conditions that impact a person’s ability to use a website include:
 memory
 reading text
 problem solving
 keeping focused (attention span)
 computation (for example calculations)
COGNITIVE DISABILITIES
The largest group of disabilities are people with cognitive disabilities
 For example: 115 million people with dementia worldwide by 2050
Meanwhile, many systems have become more and more complex
 Web applications
 TV interfaces, heating
 Phone systems
THE COGNITIVE AND LEARNING DISABILITIES
ACCESSIBILITY TASK FORCE
Creating a roadmap exploring how to make Web content more accessible and
usable by different people and groups of people with Cognitive and Learning
Disabilities:
 Review existing techniques and how they can be improved
 When necessary, develop techniques
 Develop suggested enhancements to existing W3C specifications
 Develop engineering approaches and author strategies for further review
CURRENT WORK - GAP ANALYSIS
Users
Tech
Gap Analysis
Roadmap
Techniques
All on our wiki
GAP ANALYSIS
Technology
User groups
• Cognitive functions
and symptoms
• Challenges in using
ICT/ the Web
• Persona with use
cases (challenges)
• How they use the web
and ICT to include:
Email, apps, voice
systems, etc
• Otimized content and
special pages
• Specific technologies /
guidelines
•
•
•
•
Technology overview
User group challenges
Potential for Cog A11y
WCAG issues:
• Adoption of items
relevant to cognitive
disabilities and
accessibility (Cog A11y)
• What is testable
• Use cases covered
Potential for
inclusion
• Ideas of how inclusion
could be improved
• Metadata for user to find
alternative versions
• Tools for fast creation of
alternative content
(simplification tools?)
• Adaptive content
• Information resources
such as: turning papers
into presentations,
translations tools
• Disadvantages and risks
(e.g.: lowering reading age
can be less precise, makes
mistakes, etc.)
PHASE 1
 Dyslexia
 Dyscalculia
 ADD/ADHD
 Brain injury, aphasia
 Non-vocal
 Dementia
 Down Syndrome
 Autism
WHAT MIGHT WE END UP WITH?
Simple
techniques
for
everyone
Supportive
material
Technique
structure
Accessibility
for Cognitive
and LD
Semantics
for adaptive
interfaces
Techniques
for specific
user groups
Meta data
to find the
right
version
WHAT MIGHT WE END UP WITH?
Simple
techniques
for
everyone
Supportive
material
Technique
structure
Accessibility
for Cognitive
and LD
Semantics
for adaptive
interfaces
Techniques
for specific
user groups
Meta data
to find the
right version
SOME SIMPLE TECHNIQUES ARE GOOD FOR
EVERYONE
 Include short tooltips on all icons, jargon
 For non-standard UI, a help link should be viewable
 Help should be contact sensitive (F1 default?)
 Pressing 0 on a phone menu always gets you a person
These are just ideas….nothing formal
WHAT MIGHT WE END UP WITH?
Simple
techniques
for
everyone
Supportive
material
Technique
structure
Accessibility
for Cognitive
and LD
Semantics
for adaptive
interfaces
Techniques
for specific
user groups
Meta data
to find the
right
version
WHAT MIGHT WE END UP WITH?
Simple
techniques
for everyone
Supportive
material
Technique
structure
Accessibility for
Cognitive and
LD
Semantics for
adaptive
interfaces
Techniques
for specific
user groups
Meta data to
find the right
version
SOME TIMES THE RIGHT INTERFACE MAY BE
DIFFERENT FOR DIFFERENT USERS
 Dyslexia or Dyscalculia
 Alzheimer's or Non-Vocal
SAVE
WHAT MIGHT WE END UP WITH?
Simple
techniques
for
everyone
Supportive
material
Technique
structure
Accessibility
for Cognitive
and LD
Semantics
for adaptive
interfaces
Meta data
to find the
right
version
Techniques
for specific
user groups
METADATA AND IMS:
HELP PEOPLE FIND THE RIGHT ALTERNATIVE CONTENT
User
Descriptor
------------------Preferences
WHAT MIGHT WE END UP WITH?
Simple
techniques
for everyone
Supportive
material
Technique
structure
Accessibility for
Cognitive and
LD
Semantics
for adaptive
interfaces
Techniques
for specific
user groups
Meta data to
find the right
version
SOME TIMES THE RIGHT INTERFACE MAY BE
DIFFERENT FOR DIFFERENT USERS
SAVE
WHAT MIGHT WE END UP WITH?
Simple
techniques
for
everyone
Supportive
material
Technique
structure
Accessibility
for Cognitive
and LD
Semantics
for adaptive
interfaces
Techniques
for specific
user groups
Meta data
to find the
right version
FINDING THE RIGHT TECHNIQUES
2.2.5 When an authenticated session expires,
the user can continue the activity without loss of data after re-authenticating.
 (Level AAA)
Guideline 2.4 Provide ways to help users navigate, find content,
and determine where they are.
 Making links visually distinct (Advisory Techniques for Guideline 2.4)
ISSUE 1 - AUTHOR FREEDOM
•Not necessarily be a legal requirement
•for most content
•Many people want to increase their market
•or simply accommodate as many people as possible
ISSUE 2
People with different cognitive disabilities often need
different things
But
• Not always
• We can handle it
WHAT MIGHT WE END UP WITH?
Simple
techniques
for
everyone
Supportive
material
Technique
structure
Accessibility
for Cognitive
and LD
Semantics
for adaptive
interfaces
Techniques
for specific
user groups
Meta data
to find the
right version
SUPPORTIVE MATERIAL
 Globish
 1500 English words
 Our own lexicon
 home – our main web page
 Facebook – a web site that connect people with friends
 Instructions on common interface elements
 Test with user groups
WHAT MIGHT WE END UP WITH?
Simple
techniques
for
everyone
Supportive
material
Technique
structure
Accessibility
for Cognitive
and LD
Semantics
for adaptive
interfaces
Techniques
for specific
user groups
Meta data
to find the
right version
THE COGNITIVE AND LEARNING DISABILITIES
ACCESSIBILITY TASK FORCE (COGA)
Thank you…..
 [email protected]