Unlocking Minds: Designing for Cognitive Accessibility
taught by:
Jan McSorley
co-presented by:
Jennifer Holloway, Desiree Simeone
Session Summary
This session helps content creators design digital experiences that are easier for people with cognitive disabilities to use and understand. It will provide a brief overview of how cognitive disabilities can affect things like perception, memory, attention, and problem-solving. It will also cover practical design approaches that improve usability for everyone, as well as potential cognitive barriers associated with accessibility overlays. Presenters will walk through key frameworks such as Inclusive Design, User-Centered Design, Human-Centered Design, and Universal Design for Learning, and show how Plain Language supports clear communication. Participants will get an update on practical design patterns from the W3C Cognitive Accessibility Task Force and participate in a review of a live website to see how design choices impact cognitive accessibility. This is a hands-on session, so if possible, please bring a computing device.
Description
This session equips content creators with practical knowledge and tools to design content that is accessible and inclusive.
A clear overview of cognitive disabilities will be provided, including conditions such as dyslexia, ADHD, autism, and traumatic brain injury. Participants will learn how these disabilities can affect perception, memory, attention, and problem-solving and why these challenges are often invisible and easily overlooked. The session will also explore the idea of situational cognitive disabilities, recognizing that anyone can experience cognitive barriers at any time.
Practical strategies for improving usability and inclusion will be covered and the session will introduce and compare key design frameworks, including Inclusive Design, User-Centered Design, Human-Centered Design, and Universal Design for Learning. While accessibility is a critical foundation, participants will be shown that true inclusion goes beyond compliance by ensuring content is understandable, usable, and valuable for as many people as possible. Drawing on insights from Kat Holmes’ Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design, participants will learn that designing for excluded users leads to innovation and better experiences for everyone.
Participants will also be introduced to practical design patterns from the W3C’s Making Content Usable for People with Cognitive and Learning Disabilities. These patterns are organized into key objectives that support the development of clear, simple, and usable content. Participants will walk through examples of how applying these patterns improves user experience across a wide range of users.
This is a hands-on session. Participants will review a live website and evaluate how design choices impact cognitive accessibility. Attendees are encouraged to bring a computing device to fully participate.
Practical Skills
- Understand key design approaches and identify at least three types of cognitive disabilities that benefit from them. Note: the key design approaches to be covered are Inclusive Design, User-Centered Design, Human-Centered Design, Universal Design for Learning, and Plain Language.
- Recall a minimum of 3 W3C Cognitive Accessibility (COGA) design patterns and rewrite one complex passage using plain language.
- Using a content sample, identify a minimum of 2 design errors and explain how one or more design frameworks and Cognitive Accessibility (COGA) design patterns can address them.