Article

Web accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities

Authors:

Pamela Schallau,

Richard AppleyardAuthors Info & Claims

CHI EA '05: CHI '05 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 1793 - 1796

https://doi.org/10.1145/1056808.1057024

Published: 02 April 2005 Publication History

Abstract

This pilot study investigated individuals with developmental cognitive disabilities (DCD) navigating W3C accessibility-compliant Web sites and the impact of four cognitive determinants: situation awareness, spatial awareness, task-set switching, and anticipated system response. Participants were placed into one of two search conditions and were asked to complete information-finding tasks. The usability evaluation demonstrated that the majority of users with DCD were able to access the Web but they were unable to successfully use the W3C accessibility-compliant Web sites/. The use of navigation aids was examined, different Web navigation problems were identified as well as user satisfaction and perceived usability. It is clear from this study that current Web accessibility guidelines do not sufficiently address the needs of people with cognitive disabilities. Additional research is needed to understand how cognitive disabilities affect using Web-based media.

References

[1]

Berendt, B. and Brenstein, E. Visualizing individual differences in Web navigation: STRATDYN, a tool for analyzing navigational patterns. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers, 33 (2), 2001, 243--257.

[2]

Bohman, P. Cognitive Disabilities Part 1: We still know too little, and we do even less. Accessed on December 13th 2004. Available at http://www/webaim.org/ techniques/articles/cognitive_too_little/.

[3]

Chang, C.T. A study of hypertext document structure and individual differences: Effects on learning performance. Master Abstracts International, 1995.

[4]

Frick, T., Corry, M., Hansen, L. and Maynes, B. Design-research for the Indiana University Bloomington World Wide Web: The Limestone Pages. 1995.

[5]

Jacko, J.A. Models for hierarchical menu design: Incorporating breadth and depth, task complexity, and knowledge structure of the user. AAC - Dissertation Abstracts International, 1993, 4861.

Digital Library

[6]

Jacko, J.A. and Vitense, H.S. A Review and Reappraisal of Information Technologies within a Conceptual Framework for Individuals with Disabilities. Universal Access in Information Society, 1 (1), 2001, 56--76.

[7]

Lida, B., Hull, S. and Pilcher, K. Breadcrumb Navigation: An Exploratory Study of Usage. Usability News (5.1), 2003.

[8]

Mat-Hassan, M. and Levene, M. Can Navigational Assistance Improve Search Experience? A User Study. First Monday, 6 (9), 2001.

[9]

Neerincx, M. and Lindenberg, J., Supporting Individual Situation Awareness in Web-environments. in "Ergonomie in uitvoering" Conference, (The Netherlands, 1999).

[10]

Neerincx, M., Lindenberg, J. and Pemberton, S. Support Concepts for Web Navigation: A Cognitive Engineering Approach. ACM, 2001, 119-128.

Digital Library

[11]

Nielsen, J. The art of navigating through hypertext. Communications of the ACM, 33 (3), 1990, 296--310.

Digital Library

[12]

Nielsen, J. Usability Engineering. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1993.

Digital Library

[13]

Park, J. and Kim, J., Effects of contextual navigation aids on browsing diverse Web systems. in Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, (The Hague, The Netherlands, 2000), ACM Press New York, NY, USA, 257-264.

Digital Library

[14]

Pirolli, P., Computational Models of Information Scent-Following in a Very Large Browsable Text Collection. in Proceedings, CHI 97, ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM/SIGCHI) Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, (1997).

Digital Library

[15]

Robertson, G.L. and Hix, D. Making the computer accessible to mentally retarded adults. Communications of the ACM, 45 (4), 2002, 171--185.

Digital Library

[16]

Scruggs, T.E. and Mastropieri, M.A. Can computers teach problem-solving strategies to students with mild mental retardation? Remedial & Special Education, 18 (3), 1997, 157--166.

[17]

Stock, S.E., Davies, D.K., Secor, R.R. and Wehmeyer, M.L. Self-directed career preference selection for individuals with intellectual disabilities: Using computer technology to enhance self-determination. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 19 (2), 2003, 95.

[18]

Utting, K. and Yankelovich, N. Context and Orientation in Hypermedia Networks. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 7 (1), 1989, 58--84.

Digital Library

[19]

W3C. The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). Accessed on September 12th 2003. Available at http://www.w3c.org/WAI/.

Cited By

Sieghart SRohles BBessemans A(2024)Empowering Independence Through Design: Investigating Standard Digital Design Patterns For Easy-to-Read Users.Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3641911(1-18)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3641911
Zheng JGresham MPhillipson LHall DJeon YBrodaty HLow L(2023)Exploring the usability, user experience and usefulness of a supportive website for people with dementia and carersDisability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology10.1080/17483107.2023.218054619:4(1369-1381)Online publication date: 22-Apr-2023
https://doi.org/10.1080/17483107.2023.2180546
Moreno LPetrie HMartínez PAlarcon R(2023)Designing user interfaces for content simplification aimed at people with cognitive impairmentsUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-023-00986-z23:1(99-117)Online publication date: 24-Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-023-00986-z
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Web accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities

Recommendations

Web accessibility for individuals with cognitive deficits: A comparative study between an existing commercial Web and its cognitively accessible equivalent

Tim Berners-Lee claimed in 2001 that “the power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect”. A considerable amount of work has been done to make the web accessible to those with sensory or motor ...
A novel multimodal interface for improving visually impaired people’s web accessibility

This paper introduces a novel interface designed to help blind and visually impaired people to explore and navigate on the Web. In contrast to traditionally used assistive tools, such as screen readers and magnifiers, the new interface employs a ...
Designing cognitive technologies for people with disabilities - perspectives for theory and practice

This panel will identify and discuss practical and theoretical issues in the design, implementation, and evaluation of technologies to assist persons with developmental and acquired cognitive deficits.

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

CHI EA '05: CHI '05 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2005

1358 pages

ISBN:1595930027

DOI:10.1145/1056808

Conference Chair:
Gerrit van der Veer
Vrije Universiteit, The Netherlands
,
Program Chair:
Carolyn Gale
Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Copyright © 2005 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Sponsors

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 02 April 2005

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Article

Conference

CHI05

Sponsor:

CHI05: CHI 2005 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2 - 7, 2005

OR, Portland, USA

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,164 of 23,696 submissions, 26%

Upcoming Conference

CHI 2025

Sponsor:
sigchi

ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 26 - May 1, 2025

Yokohama , Japan

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

38
Total Citations
View Citations
1,840
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)74
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)7

Reflects downloads up to 01 Mar 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Sieghart SRohles BBessemans A(2024)Empowering Independence Through Design: Investigating Standard Digital Design Patterns For Easy-to-Read Users.Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3641911(1-18)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3641911
Zheng JGresham MPhillipson LHall DJeon YBrodaty HLow L(2023)Exploring the usability, user experience and usefulness of a supportive website for people with dementia and carersDisability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology10.1080/17483107.2023.218054619:4(1369-1381)Online publication date: 22-Apr-2023
https://doi.org/10.1080/17483107.2023.2180546
Moreno LPetrie HMartínez PAlarcon R(2023)Designing user interfaces for content simplification aimed at people with cognitive impairmentsUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-023-00986-z23:1(99-117)Online publication date: 24-Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-023-00986-z
Alarcon RMoreno LMartínez PMacías J(2022)EASIER System. Evaluating a Spanish Lexical Simplification Proposal with People with Cognitive ImpairmentsInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2022.213407440:5(1195-1209)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2022
https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2022.2134074
Moreno LAlarcon RMartínez P(2021)Designing and Evaluating a User Interface for People with Cognitive DisabilitiesProceedings of the XXI International Conference on Human Computer Interaction10.1145/3471391.3471400(1-8)Online publication date: 22-Sep-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3471391.3471400
Rotondi AGrady JHanusa BHaas GSpring4 MAbebe KLuther JGurklis J(2020)Key variables for developing effective e-health intervention designs for those with, and without, mental health disorders: navigational depth, number of hyperlinks per page, use of a popup menu, reading level, page length, participant abilities with the technology. (Preprint)Journal of Medical Internet Research10.2196/23137Online publication date: 4-Aug-2020
https://doi.org/10.2196/23137
Johansson SGulliksen JGustavsson C(2020)Disability digital divide: the use of the internet, smartphones, computers and tablets among people with disabilities in SwedenUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-020-00714-xOnline publication date: 7-Mar-2020
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-020-00714-x
Rocha TParedes HMartins PBarroso J(2020)Tech-Inclusion Research: An Iconographic Browser Extension SolutionHCI International 2020 – Late Breaking Papers: Universal Access and Inclusive Design10.1007/978-3-030-60149-2_26(333-344)Online publication date: 25-Sep-2020
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60149-2_26
Pichiliani TPizzolato EGuimaraes RSaibel Santos Cde Santana VKronbauer A(2019)A survey on the awareness of brazilian web development community about cognitive accessibilityProceedings of the 18th Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3357155.3358448(1-11)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3357155.3358448
Seeman LLewis C(2019)Cognitive and Learning DisabilitiesWeb Accessibility10.1007/978-1-4471-7440-0_4(49-58)Online publication date: 4-Jun-2019
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-7440-0_4
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Figures

Tables

Media

View Table of Conten