What is Cognitive Accessibility?
Cognitive accessibility (often abbreviated as COGA, for Cognitive and Learning Disabilities) focuses on designing interfaces that are usable by individuals with neurological differences. This includes people with ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, memory loss, dementia, and other learning or cognitive disabilities.
It is often overlooked, even though cognitive and learning disabilities affect a large number of people.
Key COGA Design Principles
1. Reduce Cognitive Load
Don't overwhelm the user. Keep layouts consistent and uncluttered. Avoid long blocks of dense text. Break complex forms into multiple, simple steps.
2. Clear and Simple Language
Use plain language. Avoid jargon, complex metaphors, and overly long sentences. Write at a lower secondary education reading level where possible (WCAG 3.1.5).
3. Predictable Navigation and Structure
Ensure the site behaves predictably (WCAG 3.2). Menus should be consistent. Use clear, descriptive headings and labels. Users should never have to guess what a button does or where a link goes.
4. Provide Help and Error Recovery
Errors cause anxiety and confusion. Provide clear, text-based error messages that explain exactly what went wrong and how to fix it (WCAG 3.3). Offer context-sensitive help and ensure the help mechanisms are easy to find.
5. Minimize Distractions
Avoid auto-playing video, audio, or carousels. Provide mechanisms to pause or hide moving content (WCAG 2.2.2). Distractions can make it impossible for users with attention deficits to focus on the core content.
How AccessiSight Analyzes COGA
Testing for cognitive accessibility relies heavily on manual design review. AccessiSight's cognitive load checks help with part of it: they estimate cognitive load from sentence complexity, paragraph density, and distracting elements (animation and media), and suggest ways to simplify the page.