Month: August 2014

Autism Gap Analysis (W3C Task Force)

~ John Rochford

Neil Milliken and I have written an autism gap analysis as part of the effort to create gap analyses by the W3C‘s Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force. Our intent is to identify the gap between where the state of accessibility for people with autism is now when using the web, and where we want it to be. The following is information about the autism gap analysis.

We included some personas with use cases that address key challenges. The personas and use cases are based upon aggregated results of interviews of people with autism-spectrum disorder (ASD), and upon anecdotal observations of their use of the web.

To our knowledge, there is no significant, empirical (user-based) testing on the use of the web by people with autism or other cognitive disabilities. In part because of that, we quoted results of directly-related research performed by WebAIM (N=8) in the section “Characteristics of content optimized for this group.”

We also quoted, from authoritative sources, much of the background information about autism. We did that, in large part, to help avoid adding to ASD-related controversies. The prime example is the reported increasing prevalence of ASD, and arguments that the increase is not actual, but due to the nature of the diagnoses.

Notes:

  • I will soon conduct a literature review for user-testing-based research related to web accessibility and people with cognitive disabilities. If you know of any, please post a comment with a reference to it.
  • Neil Milliken was assisted by Jessie Grainger, an intern who helped write most of the use-case scenarios.
  • No endorsement of any of the information contained in the autism gap analysis is intended or implied.

Gap Analyses for Cognitive Web Accessibility (W3C Task Force)

~ John Rochford ~ 3 Comments

The members of the W3C‘s Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force have been working since January to develop a set of gap analyses. A gap analysis, as we have defined it, identifies the gap between where the state of accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities is now when using the web, and where we want it to be.

The gap analyses are based upon common cognitive disabilities. The following list of the gap analyses includes their primary authors (as of July, 2014).

The task force has completed the first drafts. We are now working on integrating the information in the gap analyses into a single document. A large part of this work is to define cognitive web accessibility from a functional standpoint. We plan to combine information, such as challenges and techniques, that is common across the gap analyses, and retain information that is unique to a particular disability.

Note: The referenced gap analyses should not be quoted. They are works in progress. They do not necessarily represent consensus. They may have incorrect information; or information not supported by other task-force members, the WAI, or the W3C. They also may have some very-useful information. (This disclaimer paraphrases the one at the tops of the gap analyses.)