Skip to main content

Cognitive and Learning Impairments

  • Chapter
Web Accessibility

Part of the book series: Human-Computer Interaction Series ((HCIS))

Abstract

People with cognitive disabilities are gaining in a long struggle for recognition of their right to control their lives. In the information society access to the Web is essential to this control. Cognitive barriers to this access are diverse, reflecting the complexity of human cognitive faculties. These barriers are not well managed in current accessibility practice and policy, in part because cognitive accessibility, like usability, cannot be reduced to a checklist of simple attributes. Advances in representing the meaning as well as the form of information, and in supporting configurable presentation and interaction methods, will yield progress. Increased inclusion of people with cognitive disabilities in the processes of technology development and policy making will also pay off.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.dol.gov/odep/faqs/working.htm

  2. 2.

    http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/news/2001/dec/2666complete_en.pdf

  3. 3.

    http://www.ld-web.org/index.html

  4. 4.

    http://www.conceptcoding.org/

  5. 5.

    http://www.symbolnet.org/en/index.html

  6. 6.

    http://www.widgit.com/products/webwide/index.htm

  7. 7.

    http://fluidproject.org/

  8. 8.

    http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/

  9. 9.

    http://www.ubaccess.com/index.html

  10. 10.

    http://www.thearclink.org/ http://www.thedesk.info/

References

  • Backenroth, G. A. M. (2001) People with disabilities and the changing labor market: Some challenges for counseling practice and research on workplace counseling. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 23, pp. 21–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bohman, P. (n.d. i) Cognitive Disabilities Part 1: We still know too little, and we do even less. WebAIM, http://www.webaim.org/articles/cognitive/cognitive_too_little

  • Bohman, P. (n.d. ii) Cognitive Disabilities Part 2: Conceptualizing design considerations. WebAIM, http://www.webaim.org/articles/cognitive/conceptualize

  • Braddock, D. and Parish, S. (2001) An institutional history of disability. In G.L Albrecht, K. D. Seelman, and M. Bury (Eds.) Handbook of Disability Studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 11–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckley, S. J. (n.d.) Reading and writing for individuals with Down syndrome - An overview. Down Syndrome Information Network, http://information.downsed.org/library/dsii/07/01/

  • Dybwad, G., and Bersani, H., Eds. (1996) New Voices: Self-advocacy by People with Disabilities. Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • European Commission Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs (2002) Definitions of Disability in Europe: A comparative Analysis, ec.europa.eu/employment_social/index/complete_report_en.pdf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, S. (2006) Online health search 2006. Pew Internet & American Life Project, http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/190/report_display.asp

  • Francik, E. (1999) Telecommunications Problems and Design Strategies for People with Cognitive Disabilities. http://www.wid.org/archives/telecom/

  • Freeman, E., Clare, L., Savitch, N., Royan, L., Litherland, R., and Lindsay, M. (2005) Improving website accessibility for people with early-stage dementia: A preliminary investigation. Aging & Mental Health, 9, pp. 442–448.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gould, J. D., and Lewis, C. (1985) Designing for usability: key principles and what designers think. Communication ACM 28, 3, pp. 300–311.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harrysson, B., Svensk, A., and Johansson, G. I. (2004). How People with Developmental Disabilities Navigate the Internet. British Journal of Special Education, 31, pp. 138–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hendershot, G. E., Larson, S. A., Lakin, K. C., and Doljanac, R. (2005) Problems in Defining Mental Retardation and Developmental Disability: Using the National Health Interview Survey. DD Data Brief, Volume 7, http://rtc.umn.edu/misc/pubcount.asp?publicationid=131

  • Henley, C. A. (2001) Good Intentions–Unpredictable Consequences. Disability & Society, 16, pp. 933–947.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hudson, R., Weakley, R., and Firminger, P. (2005) An Accessibility Frontier: Cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties. Originally presented at OZeWAI 2004 Conference, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia - 2 December 2004. http://www.usability.com.au/resources/cognitive.cfm

  • Hunt, N. (1967) The World of Nigel Hunt. New York: Garrett Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • IMS Global Learning Consortium (2004) IMS AccessForAll Meta-data Overview http://www.imsglobal.org/accessibility/accmdv1p0/imsaccmd_oviewv1p0.html

  • Interagency Committee on Disability Research (2003) Federal Statutory Definitions of Disability, http://www.icdr.us/documents/definitions.htm

  • Microsoft (n.d.) The Market for Accessible Technology—The Wide Range of Abilities and Its Impact on Computer Use. Online at http://www.microsoft.com/enable/research/phase1.aspx

  • Neubert, D. A., Moon, M. S., Grigal, M., and Redd, V. (2001) Post-secondary educational practices for individuals with mental retardation and other significant disabilities: A review of the literature. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 16, pp. 155–169.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pirolli, P. (2005 ) Rational Analyses of Information Foraging on the Web. Cognitive Science, 29, pp. 343–373.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education (2002) A New Era: Revitalizing Special Education for Children and Their Families. http://www.ed.gov/inits/commissionsboards/whspecialeducation/reports/index.html

  • Prouty, R.W., Smith, G., and Lakin, K. C. (2006) Residential Services for Persons with Developmental Disabilities: Status and Trends Through 2005. Research and Training Center on Community Living, http://rtc.umn.edu/risp05

  • Rapley, M. (2004) The Social Construction of Intellectual Disability. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Redish, J. (2000) Readability formulas have even more limitations than Klare discusses. ACM Journal of Computer Documentation, 24, pp. 132–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, D. H. and Meyer, A. (2002) Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roth, William. “Handicap as a Social Construct.” Society 20, no. 3 (March/April 1983): 56–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seeman, L. (2002) Inclusion Of Cognitive Disabilities in the Web Accessibility Movement. WWW2002, Eleventh International World Wide Web Conference (Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, 7–11 May 2002) . http://www2002.org/CDROM/alternate/689/

  • Small, J., Schallau, P., Brown, K., and Appleyard, R. (2005). Web accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities. In CHI '05 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Portland, OR, USA, April 02–07, 2005). CHI '05. ACM Press, New York, NY, pp. 1793–1796.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanovich, K. E. (2005). The future of a mistake: Will discrepancy measurement continue to make the learning disabilities field a pseudoscience? Learning Disability Quarterly, 28, pp. 103–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stanovich, K. E., and West, R. F. (2000). Individual differences in reasoning: Implications for the rationality debate? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23, pp. 645–665.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sternberg, R. J., and Grigorenko, E. L. (2004). Learning disabilities, giftedness, and gifted/LD. In T. M. Newman and R. J. Sternberg (Eds.), Students with Both Gifts and Learning Disabilities. New York: Kluwer pp. 17–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • theARC (1997) Community living. http://www.thearc.org/faqs/comliv.html

  • United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2005) Annual Report on the Federal Work Force: Fiscal Year 2004. Table 6. http://www.eeoc.gov/federal/fsp2004/aed/table6.html

  • W3C (1999) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Clayton Lewis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2008 Springer-Verlag London Limited

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Lewis, C. (2008). Cognitive and Learning Impairments. In: Harper, S., Yesilada, Y. (eds) Web Accessibility. Human-Computer Interaction Series. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84800-050-6_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84800-050-6_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-84800-049-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-84800-050-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics