Category:Cognitive and Neurological Disabilities

Cognitive and neurological disabilities are disabilities of the nervous system including the brain and spine. They can impact all other senses, as well as the ability to move or understand information. Cognitive and neurological disabilities don't necessarily impact someone's intelligence, though they may impact their ability to express themselves.

Examples of these disabilities include:

• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
• Dementia
• Intellectual disabilities (sometimes called "learning disabilities" or "developmental disabilities")
• Perceptual disabilities (which are also sometimes called "learning disabilities")
• Mental health disabilities including anxiety, depression, and many other disorders
• Memory impairments
• Migraines
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Seizure disorders
• Vestibular disorders
• Dyslexia

Design considerations

When we build for these barriers we need to provide:

• Clear navigation and page layouts that are easy to understand and use
• Clear and precise "plain language" instructions or explanations.
• Images, graphs, or other illustrations to highlight or reemphasize key content
• Designs that can be adapted using web browser controls or custom stylesheets. 

We need to avoid:

• Moving, blinking, or flickering content and/or background audio that cannot be turned off. These things may trigger seizures or other disorders. (That doesn't mean we can't use them; it does mean we have to provide easy access to shut them off.) Your Interactive Makes Me Sick by Eileen Web outlines some of the impacts of animated scrolling and breaking the user's expectations for scrolling on users with migraines and other vestibular disorders. 

Additional resources

• Diversity of Web Users by the WAI