All Supplemental Guidance
Cognitive Accessibility Guidance
This guidance provides advice on how to better meet the accessibility needs of people with cognitive and learning disabilities. The guidance listed below is grouped under “Objectives” and provided in “Design Patterns”.
Help Users Understand What Things are and How to Use Them
Objective: Help Users Understand What Things are and How to Use Them
Design Patterns:
Help Users Find What They Need
Objective: Help Users Find What They Need
Design Patterns:
Use Clear and Understandable Content
Objective: Use Clear and Understandable Content
Design Patterns:
- Use Clear Words
- Use a Simple Tense and Voice
- Avoid Double Negatives or Nested Clauses
- Use Literal Language
- Keep Text Succinct
- Use Clear, Unambiguous Formatting and Punctuation
- Include Symbols and Letters Necessary to Decipher the Words
- Provide Summary of Long Documents and Media
- Separate Each Instruction
- Use White Spacing
- Ensure Foreground Content is not Obscured by Background
- Explain Implied Content
- Provide Alternatives for Numerical Concepts
Help Users Avoid Mistakes and Know How to Correct Them
Objective: Help Users Avoid Mistakes and Know How to Correct Them
Design Patterns:
- Ensure Controls and Content Do Not Move Unexpectedly
- Let Users Go Back
- Notify Users of Fees and Charges at the Start of a Task
- Design Forms to Prevent Mistakes
- Make it Easy to Undo Form Errors
- Use Clear Visible Labels
- Use Clear Step-by-step Instructions
- Accept different input formats
- Avoid Data Loss and “Timeouts”
- Provide Feedback
- Help the user stay safe
- Use Familiar Metrics and Units
Help Users Focus
Ensure Processes Do Not Rely on Memory
Objective: Ensure Processes Do Not Rely on Memory
Design Patterns:
Provide Help and Support
Objective: Provide Help and Support
Design Patterns:
- Provide Human Help
- Provide Alternative Content for Complex Information and Tasks
- Clearly State the Results and Disadvantages of Actions, Options, and Selections
- Provide Help for Forms and Non-standard Controls
- Make It Easy to Find Help and Give Feedback
- Provide Help with Directions
- Provide Reminders
Support Adaptation and Personalization
Low Vision Accessibility Guidance
Guidance on how to better meet the needs of people with low vision may be added in 2023.