Designing+Accessible+Web+pages+for+Individuals+with+Cognitive+Disabilities

//This article doesn't specifically state "ONE web 2.0 technique". Rather it discusses accessing the web as the 'web 2.0 technique'. That's not exactly a 'web 2.0 technique'. It would be much better if this article identified a specific technique, rather than discuss web design issues.//

Designing Accessible Web Pages for Individuals with Cognitive Disabilities

Individuals with cognitive disabilities are faced with many challenges and obstacles when trying to access many web pages on the internet. There are many types of cognitive and learning disabilities and an even wider variety of interests and capabilities of users who have these disabilities. This population is larger than those with all other physical and sensory disabilities combined. Because needs vary across these disabilities, it's difficult to make definitive recommendations that will universally help **all** users with cognitive and learning disabilities. Despite this, there is much we can say that is useful. Improving web accessibility for this audience will improve access for everyone. In many ways, it's hard to define when a page is accessible to users with cognitive disabilities. How simple is simple enough? For the most part, **cognitive web accessibility is one of those **//**"you know it when you see it" **//** things **. Common sense, holistic evaluation, and user testing should predominantly guide cognitive web accessibility evaluation. Users with cognitive or learning disabilities often use screen readers or other assistive technologies to access content through various senses or to modify content to be best perceivable to them. Adding alternative text for images is the first principle of web accessibility. It is also one of the most difficult to properly implement. The web is replete with images that have missing, incorrect, or poor alternative text. Like many things in web accessibility, determining appropriate, equivalent, alternative text is often a matter of personal interpretation. Consistency is another issue with web design. Web designers need to insure that navigation is consistent throughout their site. They also need to ensure that when enlarged that test and images are readable. The focus and structure of the site could use white spaces to focus a user’s attention on the most important details. Avoid distractions such as animation, unusual fonts, busy backgrounds and any other objects or elements that distract the reader from the content. Organize content into well defined chunks of information. Use white spaces for separation of material. Give the user control over background sounds. Use language that is simple and appropriate for the content. Use spell checker to check for spelling and grammatical errors. Be careful with abbreviations, acronyms, and jargon. These are just a few suggestions for making a site more user friendly for individuals with cognitive disabilities. Article from WEBAIM: Evaluating Cognitive Web Accessibilityhttp://webaim.org/articles/evaluatingcognitive///

//Marcus Humphrey//

//Technology growth continues at such a rapid pace that it is difficult to imagine any limitations. Web accessibility and the notion of universal design are commendable and for many disabled people have resulted in significant benefits. Well-designed sites allow people with a range of physical disabilities to access goods and services and participate in activities with an ease that was denied them in the pre-web world. In spite of this fast growth trend, one of the more prevailing problems today remains with meeting the needs of the largest disability group in our community, those with cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties. They simply appear to have slipped through the cracks to a large extent when it comes to website accessibility. When it came to considering individuals with cognitive and learning difficulties, it seems that those responsible for the growth trend did little more than give lip service to their needs. //

//Most websites are text based , and so the words  are a good place to begin. The words should be //clear and simple so that they may be more easily understood//. Individuals with cognitive challenges must have opportunity to clearly understand the text if they are to give reasonable responses in an engaging manner. Also, another very important element of web accessibility is that of readability. The web design should present the clearest and simplest language appropriate.


 * 1) [|**Web**] [| Usability - An **Accessibility** Frontier: **Cognitive disabilities** and **...**]

usability.com.au/resources/**cognitive**.cfm [|Cached]