Article: Seeking Health-Web Accessibility and People with Cognitive Disabilities

2006

Richard Appleyard

People with developmental cognitive disabilities (DCD) are increasingly using the Web for recreational, social, vocational and consumer needs but a reliable and accurate user model of how DCD moderate user access is lacking. The purpose of this pilot study is twofold: First, investigators present a conceptual model of several fundamental elements required for successful Web navigation. Second, we conducted usability evaluations with participants who had mild to moderate levels of DCD to examine the overall conceptual ?fit? of the model. Results: The usability evaluation demonstrated that the majority of participants with DCD were unable to successfully use the W3C accessibility compliant Web site and different Web navigation problems were identified. It is clear from this study that DCD user profiles present a complex mix of user strengths and The Problem. The Internet is a great place to find useful information but people with cognitive impairments may face barriers to accessing the Web. We conducted a study of how people navigate Web sites and the potential problems they run into. We focused on four areas that are key to using the Web. Situational Awareness is a user?s memory of their online surroundings, Spatial Awareness is a user?s awareness of how the content is related to the navigation, Task-set Switching is a user?s ability to quickly move from one task to another, Anticipated System Response is a user?s perception of how a Web page should respond to their actions.

Reports and monographs

Consumers/Families

Visual Format or Large Print, Electronic (disc, CD, 508 compliant web posting)

N/A