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Article Contents
Current page: Page 1: Introduction
Something to Think About…
Clinical vs. Functional Classifications
Memory
Problem-Solving
Attention
Reading, Linguistic, and Verbal Comprehension
Non-literal text
Non-existent text
Math Comprehension
Visual Comprehension
Page 2: Design Considerations
Page 3: Cognitive Disabilities Activity
Something to Think About…
Cognitive disability (also known as intellectual disability) is a nebulous term describing a person who has greater difficulty with mental tasks than the average person. Cognitive disabilities are by far the most common type of disability.
Most cognitive disabilities are rooted in biology or physiology. The connection between biology and mental processes is most obvious in cases of traumatic brain injury and genetic disorders, but even the more subtle cognitive disabilities stem from brain structure or chemistry.
People with profound cognitive disabilities need assistance with nearly every aspect of daily living. Someone with a minor learning disability, however, may be able to function adequately, even to the extent that the disability is never diagnosed.
Some web content is too complex by its nature to ever be fully accessible to users with profound cognitive disabilities. Nevertheless, developers and designers still have techniques available to make content accessible to as wide a spectrum of users as possible.
