Introduction
You’re probably familiar with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Following those guidelines helps ensure equitable access to content for people with disabilities. However, they don’t cover every type of disability—at least not yet. Recognizing that gap, W3C created a task force that developed supplemental guidance.
The Cognitive Accessibility Guidance identifies eight objectives to reduce barriers for people with cognitive, intellectual, and learning disabilities, as well as neurodivergent (or neurologically different) individuals. For the sake of brevity (something I’m honestly not great at), I’ll refer to all these conditions and neurotypes as “cognitive disabilities” throughout this post.
This post will familiarize you with the eight objectives of the Cognitive Accessibility Guidance and how to meet them in the context of instructional design and learning and development.
Cognitive Accessibility Guidance
The Cognitive Accessibility Guidance is organized under eight objectives. Let’s talk about what each one means for learning and development.
Objective 1: Help Users Understand What Things Are and How to Use Them
Learners with cognitive disabilities may have a hard time figuring out how to navigate an unfamiliar interface. So, it’s important that we use familiar interface designs, clearly label buttons and links, and provide visual signposts to draw attention to important content. We should also ensure that we’re using buttons and links correctly and consistently. (You can learn more about that in this post.)
Consistency in the visual design (font choices, colors, layouts) is important for all learners, and especially so for learners with cognitive disabilities. For example, if all the knowledge check questions in an eLearning course use the same basic layout, but one is different, the learner will wonder why it’s different. For some users, an unexpected or unexplained difference like this could cause anxiety and interfere with learning.
All learners benefit from explicit instructions. Learners with cognitive disabilities may not be able to “read between the lines” if part of the instructions is implied. For example, in a matching question, specify how the user should select their answer. Should they select an item in a dropdown list? Type the letter of their choice? Select a radio button in a table?
Cognitive accessibility also includes making sure the learner knows where they are within the lesson and how far they have left to go. We can accomplish this by including a progress bar or simply by ensuring that the menu is enabled so they can see all the pages in the lesson.
Objective 1 Design Patterns
Under each objective in the Cognitive Accessibility Guidance, there are “design patterns” we can select for detailed information about how to meet the objective. The design patterns for objective 1 appear below. Visit the full guidance for more information and user personas.
- Make the purpose of your page clear.
- Use a familiar hierarchy and design.
- Use a consistent visual design.
- Make each step clear.
- Clearly identify controls and their use.
- Make the relationship clear between controls and the content they affect.
- Use icons that help the user.
Objective 2: Help Users Find What They Need
Learners with cognitive disabilities will have a harder time sifting through visual clutter to find information. We need to simplify the content and the way we present it so there’s no “filler.”
Safety-related content should always be easy to find, not buried within paragraphs of text. Along the same lines, put the most important information up front.
Using visual signposts like headers and clearly recognizable icons can help direct learners’ attention to what’s most important. Also use plenty of white space, keeping paragraphs short.
When developing videos, the shorter the better. If videos are on the longer side, provide chapter markers so users can find information they need easily. This is especially important for information learners will need to refer back to after the initial view.
Finally, whenever possible, incorporate a search feature. Storyline has this functionality built in to the player; all you have to do is enable it.
Objective 2 Design Patterns
The design patterns for objective 2 of the Cognitive Accessibility Guidance appear below. Visit the full guidance for more information and user personas.
- Make it easy to find the most important tasks and features
- Make the site hierarchy easy to understand and navigate
- Use a clear and understandable page structure
- Make it easy to find the most important actions and information on the page
- Break media into chunks
- Provide search
Objective 3: Use Clear and Understandable Content
Clear and concise wording choices help everyone. But for many learners with cognitive disabilities that affect the brain’s language centers, plain language is essential for understanding.
Using plain language means using simple words, short sentences and paragraphs, the active voice, and plenty of white space. It means avoiding jargon, acronyms, and idioms. The goal of plain language is to make content nearly impossible to misunderstand. I’ve written about plain language in previous posts and will include links at the end of this post.
In addition, providing summaries and transcripts makes it easier for learners to see the key points and refer back to information, especially when it’s presented via multimedia.
Interpreting sarcasm, facial expressions, metaphors, or emojis may be difficult for some learners. So it’s helpful to explain important information clearly without assuming everyone understands what is only implied.
Besides the language we use, making content clear and understandable also means being mindful of how we use numbers and math-related information. This type of information can be problematic for users like me with dyscalculia, a learning disorder that affects how the brain processes numerical information.
Objective 3 Design Patterns
The design patterns for objective 3 of the Cognitive Accessibility Guidance appear below. Visit the full guidance for more information and user personas.
- Use clear words.
- Use a simple tense and voice.
- Avoid double negatives or nested clauses.
- Use literal language.
- Keep text succinct.
- Use clear, unambiguous formatting and punctuation.
- Include symbols and letters necessary to decipher the words.
- Provide summary of long documents and media.
- Separate each instruction.
- Use white spacing.
- Ensure foreground content is not obscured by background
- Explain implied content
- Provide alternatives for numerical concepts
Objective 4: Help Users Avoid Mistakes and Know How to Correct Them
Learners with cognitive disabilities are more prone to mistakes, such as transposing letters and numbers, mistyping a word, or accidentally clicking the wrong button. Whenever possible, make it easy for learners to undo mistakes. For example, in a branching scenario, you could include a “Go Back” button to allow learners to return to a previous decision point to make another choice.
For fill-in-the-blank questions, consider expanding the list of correct answers to include common misspellings. If you’re asking learners to complete a form, highlight any errors to make them easy to find before submission.
Objective 4 Design Patterns
The design patterns for objective 4 of the Cognitive Accessibility Guidance appear below. Visit the full guidance for more information and user personas.
- Ensure controls and content do not move unexpectedly.
- Let users go back.
- Notify users of fees and charges at the start of a task.
- Design forms to prevent mistakes.
- Make it easy to undo form errors.
- Use clear visible labels.
- Use clear step-by-step instructions.
- Accept different input formats.
- Avoid data loss and “timeouts”
- Provide feedback
- Help the user stay safe.
- Use familiar metrics and units.
Objective 5: Help Users Focus
Learners with cognitive disabilities are more likely to be distracted by clutter, interruptions, extraneous sensory input, and seductive details, which can derail their learning experience.
Minimize distractions as much as possible. Avoid using moving backgrounds or other onscreen movement, like GIFs, or make sure the user can stop them. Whenever possible, avoid linking to YouTube videos where learners may become distracted by ads and other content. Avoid using background music behind narration.
Another way to help users focus is by keeping the content as brief as it can be while still meeting the objectives. Cut out any “fluff.” Also, prepare learners for important tasks like quizzes by telling them exactly what to expect, such as the number of questions, format, whether notes or references are allowed, and expected time to complete it.
Objective 5 Design Patterns
The design patterns for objective 5 of the Cognitive Accessibility Guidance appear below. Visit the full guidance for more information and user personas.
- Limit interruptions.
- Make short critical paths.
- Avoid too much content.
- Provide information so a user can complete and prepare for a task.
Objective 6: Ensure Processes Do Not Rely on Memory
Many cognitive disabilities affect memory, so it’s an important consideration to keep in mind. This objective is mainly related to how users log in and navigate menus, but there are some takeaways here for instructional designers.
Whenever possible, reduce the learner’s need to memorize information. Consider whether they’re required to know the information for their job or whether they can use references,
Cognitive load theory tells us to break information into no more than 9 chunks because of the “7 plus or minus 2” rule, which aims to quantify how much information our memories can hold at once. But for many of us with cognitive disabilities that affect memory, 9 pieces of information at once may as well be 20. Err on the side of caution, and make your chunks smaller.
Objective 6 Design Patterns
The design patterns for objective 6 of the Cognitive Accessibility Guidance appear below. Visit the full guidance for more information and user personas.
- Provide a login that does not rely on memory or other cognitive skills.
- Allow the user a simple, single step, login.
- Provide a login alternative with less words.
- Let users avoid navigating voice menus.
- Do not rely on users calculations or memorizing information.
Objective 7: Provide Help and Support
Providing help and support for learners includes many of the things we’ve already discussed, such as providing summaries and visual signposts. It also includes providing human help. If you don’t already do so, consider including subject matter expert contact information in your courses so learners can reach out with questions.
You know those long descriptions you write for complex charts and graphics? Make sure those are available to sighted users and not only buried in alt text. They can be very helpful for learners with cognitive disabilities who may need help interpreting the data.
Reminders are especially helpful for people with memory issues or those who struggle with time-bound tasks. For example, if you are designing or facilitating a training activity that’s expected to take 20 minutes, you could tell participants when they have 5 minutes remaining and check on their progress to see if they will need more time.
Objective 7 Design Patterns
The design patterns for objective 7 of the Cognitive Accessibility Guidance are shown below. Visit the full guidance for more information and user personas.
- Provide human help.
- Provide alternative content for complex information and tasks.
- Clearly state the results and disadvantages of actions, options, and selections.
- Provide help for forms and non-standard controls.
- Make it easy to find help and give feedback.
- Provide help with directions.
- Provide reminders.
Objective 8: Support Adaptation and Personalization
Many learners use assistive technology, which isn’t limited to screen readers. Assistive technology for learners with cognitive disabilities may include password managers, spelling and grammar checkers, highlighters, and text-to-speech apps or extensions. Our designs shouldn’t disable those supports if possible. In addition, users should be able to control when content changes, such as when a video plays.
Objective 8 Design Patterns
The design patterns for objective 8 of the Cognitive Accessibility Guidance appear below. Visit the full guidance for more information and user personas.
- Let users control when the content moves or changes.
- Enable APIs and extensions.
- Support simplification.
- Support a personalized and familiar interface.
Summary of the W3C's Cognitive Accessibility Guidance
The Cognitive Accessibility Guidance from W3C gives us 8 objectives to help make content more usable for people with cognitive disabilities.
The one-minute video below summarizes the eight objectives. I made this using a new-to-me video creation tool called Colossyan. If the video does not appear below, you can view it using this link.
