Placeholder are hints within forms that helps you enter data.
[Read more…] about What are placeholders?The Accessibility of the Blinking Cursor
Situation
It appears I’m not the only one who wonders if a blinking cursor is sufficient to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guideline number 1.4.11.
Task
Action
Results
Choosing better words…
Situation
My client’s UX team is taking the lead on creating a bias-free tutorial to help improve external and internal communications.
- Gender inclusion
- Disability inclusion
- Minority inclusion
Task
- Explain ableist language
- Identify ableist language
- Show better examples
- Explain
Action
- Gathered resources
- Created references
- Created Miro board
Results
Rough outline
Summary
Disability language is an evolving subject.
What are cognitive disabilities?
During a design review, someone asked for more specific information about cognitive disabilities. As a result, I pulled out all my resources to see if I could distill the information in an easy-to-understand answer.
What is cognition?
The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.
Lexico / Cognition
What is a cognitive disability or impairment?
You will often find the terms, ‘cognitive disability’ and ‘cognitive impairment’, being used to describe similar concepts. Here are a few examples from credible sources below.
Cognitive and learning disabilities impact how people process information.
World Wide Web Consortium – Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C-WAI)
Cognitive impairment is when a person has trouble remembering, learning new things, concentrating, or making decisions that affect their everyday life.
Center for Disease Control (CDC)
A cognitive disability can affect a person’s ability to learn and process information; communicate through spoken or written language; and infer information correctly from social cues and body language.
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
Cognitive impairment refers to a broad range of disabilities, from people with intellectual disabilities who may have the most-limited capabilities, to age-related issues with thinking and remembering.
Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) / Cognitive accessibility
While there is a difference between a disability and impairment, we will use disability as a broader concept here. For more information on the difference between disability, impairment, and handicap, ACC Institute of Human Services has a great article, Impairment, Disability, and Handicap: What’s the Difference?
Types of Cognitive Disabilities
In no particular order, the following list contains both general and specific types of disabilities where people have difficulties with cognitive functions.
- Reading Disabilities
- Intellectual / Learning Disabilities
- Math and Computational Disabilities
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
- Non-verbal Learning Disability (NVLD)
Anyone diagnosed with a cognitive disability may have one or more type of cognitive difficulty. For example, some people are fine with reading but struggle with math.
How many people have cognitive disability?
The percentage of the population is pulled from the listed source in the last column. The population size is calculated using the percentage of the population with the population size provided by Worldometer as of May 2022.
- World population - 7,900,000,000 or 7.9 billion
- USA population - 331,000,000 or 331 million
| Type of Cognitive Disability | Percentage of Population (Earth or USA) | Population Size | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intellectual and Learning Disability | 1 to 3 percent (Earth) | 70 to 210 million people (Earth) | IAAP |
| Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) | 11 percent (Earth) | 869 million people | IAAP |
| Autism Spectrum Disorder | 1 percent (Earth) | 79 million people (Earth) | World Health Organization (WHO) |
| Non-verbal Learning Disability (NLVD) | 1 percent (Earth) | 79 million people (Earth) | IAAP |
| Math and Computational Disabilities | 3 to 7 percent (USA) | 9 to 23 million people (USA) | National Library of Medicine |
| Dyscalculia | 3 to 6 percent (Earth) | 237 million people (Earth) | IAAP |
The financial costs of cognitive disability
While it is difficult to measure the true impact of cognitive disability, we do have various sources can help us better understand the financial costs of cognitive disabilities.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) released a report [PDF] in 2011 after acquiring data from fives states that started assessing the impact of cognitive disability on the state level.
- People with cognitive impairment report more than three times as many hospital stays as individuals who are hospitalized for some other condition.
- The average Medicaid payment for a person aged 65 or older with Alzheimer’s or other dementias is nine times higher than that for other beneficiaries in the same age group.
Cognitive disability and web accessibility
When it comes to web accessibility, five of the most common types of disabilities.
- Visual – relating to the sense of seeing
- Aural – relating to the sense of hearing
- Verbal – relating to speech
- Mobility – relating to movement
- Thinking – relating to cognition
Converting Ableism
The other day, I came across a sentence that jumped out to me as an ableist comment. “Those who are blessed to see, hear, read, should take care of those who can’t enjoy reading.” It took me a moment to capture it so I can revisit it later after I unpacked my reaction.
- Not everyone enjoys reading
- Not everyone can see, hear, read
- Can it be something other than a blessing?
- Is it an ableist comment or a “saving grace”?
- If it is a saving grace, who is being saved from whom?
- Some people prefer to listen or watch instead of reading
It’s a simple exercise to replace words to identify if there is a better set of words that fits your goal. In my case, it is to determine how to convert an ableist comment to an inclusive comment.
Step 1. Remove the trigger words
Those who (blank) to (blank) should take care (blank).
Step 2. Find neutral words and be purposefully inclusive
Those who (receive information and stories) should take care (to share information and stories with more people).
We are all story tellers. Whether we are sharing data or opinions, we have the power to present these information or stories in a way that can be passed along.
Create an Accessibility Defect Management Policy
In a perfect world, everything would be done right and perfect from start to finish. Here on Earth, we have to figure things out from scratch. However, we can perfect the process as we go through the cycle of improvement.
Defects are a fact we have to manage.
– Agile Accessibility Handbook
In an agile design and development environment, an accessibility defect management policy will allow you to identify, prioritize and report these issues. It should guide or outline the following information for your team to resolve any accessibility issues.
- Identify and assess existing systems for capturing issues
- Identify and assess existing channels for communicating issues
- Identify key information with accessibility issues for communication purposes
- Establish an internal and external communication medium for compliance and reporting purposes
- Establish a method of assigning priority levels to each issue
- Establish a method of assigning members to resolution