20 Sites Assessed For Cognitive Web Accessibility

This post summarizes the results from my assessments of the Web sites of 20 organizations that serve people with cognitive disabilities. It is my plan to perform 100 such cognitive Web accessibility assessments. The Clear Helper site has detailed information and results.

The assessments have 10 criteria. Seven are based upon WebAIM’s latest Cognitive Web Accessibility Checklist. Three are intended to help evaluate general Web site accessibility.

The following are the assessment criteria and the percentages of the sites that met them. The included links go to pages that provide details and results for the guidelines comprising the assessment criteria.

Content Criteria

• Multi-Modality (e.g., video- or audio alternatives to text), 20%
• Focus and Structure (use of elements to focus attention, not distract it, etc.), 70%
• Readability and Language (clear display of text and use of simple language), 50%

Design Criteria

• Consistency (of navigation), 65%
• Transformability (support for increased text- and image sizes, etc.), 80%
• Orientation and Error Prevention/Recovery (adequate instructions, feedback and error recovery), 50%
• Assistive Technology Compatibility (use of alternative text, labels, headings, keyboard accessibility, etc.), 35%

Design-Related Criteria

• Attempt to meet W3C accessibility standards, 70%
• Accessibility statement, 25%
• Explanation about how to use site accessibility feature(s), 25%

Notes

• Two sites met all criteria; I thus judged them to be accessible to people with cognitive disabilities.
• This post is part of a continuing series on Cognitive Web Accessibility Assessments.