Establishing design best practices for users with cognitive and learning difficulties

Keates, Simeon; Varker, Philip

Abstract

In many respects, cognitive difficulties and learning impairments are the poor relation of Universal Access (UA) research. Research into emotional impairments is even less common. A simple review of almost any general UA or Assistive Technology conference proceedings will typically show a strong bias towards sensory (vision and hearing) impairment, with a strong minority addressing motor impairment issues. This is an improvement on the situation a few years ago where the vast majority of the papers would be based solely on blindness, despite that particularly impairment constituting only 14% of people with a vision impairment and 2% of the overall prevalence of functional impairment in the general population [7]. This paper discusses the reasons why such a disparity exists and summarises the outcome of an International Symposium, hosted by the IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Center, to establish the state-of-the-art in research and best practices for supporting access for users with cognitive difficulties and learning impairments.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (Published)
• Conference Name: 4th International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction, UAHCI 2007
• Start Date: Jul 22, 2007
• End Date: Jul 27, 2007
• Publication Date: 2007
• Deposit Date: Jan 30, 2019
• Publisher: Springer
• Pages: 706-715
• Series Title: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Series Number: 4554
• Series ISSN: 0302-9743
• Book Title: Universal Acess in Human Computer Interaction. Coping with Diversity: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction, UAHCI 2007, Part I
• ISBN: 9783540732785
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73279-2_78
• Keywords: design best practices, users with cognitive and learning difficulties
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1497277