Proposed intro for the first editors draft

Folks, I drafted an intro for the first editors draft.  
Let me know any comments (including if you think it is OK).
All the best... Lisa

Introduction
 

 A gap analysis identifies the gap between where you are now and where you want to be. This document is a gap analysis of the state of accessibility for People with learning disabilities and cognitive disabilities when using the Web and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). We aim to identify and describe the current situation and contrast it to what we want to happen.
  This document will be used as a base document to enable discussion, suggest techniques and create a roadmap for improving accessibility for people with learning disabilities and cognitive disabilities.
 This document is divided into sections. The first section reviews the current situation, in terms of user groups, research, technologies and existing standards. It is currently at is first draft and we are asking for comments. Please let us know if you are aware of omissions.
 The second section will identify gaps between the current situation and the potential for accessibility support. This section is not yet at review stage.
 The third section makes suggestions for improving accessibility for people with learning disabilities and cognitive disabilities, including techniques and proposals for the roadmap, and an outline of what needs to be done. It is currently at is first draft and we invite comments.
  
 Why this draft is important
 This document is important because enabling people with learning and cognitive disabilities to use the Web and ICT is of critical importance to both the individuals and to society.
 More and more the internet and ICT has become the main way people stay informed and current on news and health information, keep in touch with friends and family, and provides independence, convenient shopping, and other. People who cannot use these interfaces will have an increased feeling of being disabled and alienation from society. 
 Further, with the advent of the Web of Things everyday physical objects are connected to the Internet and have ICT interfaces. Being able to use these interfaces now is an essential component of allowing people to maintain their independence, stay in the work force for longer and stay safe.  
 Consider that the population is aging. By 2050 it is projected there will be 115 million people with dementia worldwide. It is essential to the economy and society that people with mild and moderate levels of dementia stay as active as possible and participate in society for as long as possible. However, at the moment even people with only a mild cognitive decline find may standard applications impossible to use. That means more and more people are dependent on care givers for things that they could do themselves, increasing the crippling cost of care and reducing human dignity.
 We therefore invite you to review this draft, comment and consider how your technologies and work may be effected by these issues.
 Assumptions
 There is a huge number of cognitive disabilities and variations of them. If we attempt an analysis of all the possibilities, the job will be too big and nothing will be achieved. Therefore we are adopting a phased approach, selecting in phase one a limited scope of eight diverse disabilities, and hope to achieve something useful within that scope. Also note that helping users improve skills, and emotional disabilities, are out of scope for phase one. We anticipate this analysis will continue to a second or third phase where more user groups are analyzed and the existing analyses are updated with new research and with new technologies and scenarios. 
  
 Comments
 This is an early and incomplete draft for review and to help us get comments and early feedback. We are particularly interested in:
 •           Omitted challenges, use cases and issues.
 •           Issues involving your technologies/work and people with learning and cognitive disabilities.
 •           Other omitted research
 We welcome comments and suggestions. Please send comments to … All comments will be reviewed and discussed by the task force. Although we cannot commit to formally responding to all comments on this draft, the discussions can be tracked in the task force minutes.  
  
  
 Methodology in User Research
 In making user scenarios and user group research we are taking a multilevel approach. 
 A. Asking the users
 What do they have trouble with? 
What tasks do they need help with? 
What tasks they avoid 
What tasks often lead to mistakes 
 B. Addressing specific topics
 In the user group research section of the gap analysis, we aim to identify abstract principles for accessibility for people with cognitive and learning disabilities, and core challenges for each user group as well as practical techniques. 
 However, when trying to identify abstract principles, it is often helpful to look at concrete user scenarios and challenges that different user group’s face. For that purpose we have identified the practical and diverse user scenarios that should be considered in user group research. These include: 
 Communication Making sure users can communicate with people and be part of society. Tasks to investigate: 
 Use email and chat effectively 
Being aware of a change 
Share pictures and information 
Play 
Request information 
 Applications 
 Apps to enable work such as document authoring 
Critical DHTML content and applications such as: enroll and manage healthcare, make an appointment, enroll and manage banking, shop online 
 sign-up / register and manage account profile on a site, book and manage travel 
 Enroll in and participate in online education 
Apps such as mobile apps 
Directions / locations 
 ICT systems 
 Use the Web of Things applications such as temperature control, entertainment systems 
Phone menu systems 
Other menu systems 
 Research and Education 
 Understand content and learning material 
Search, research, and find information 
Enroll in and participate in online education 
 Access to critical information 
 Read and share news 
Find weather alerts 
Find and read emergency information 
Find out rites and social service information 
 C. We also have the following cross cutting concerns
 Using content should be: 
 Safe 
Effective 
Minimal frustration 
 Authors
 This document is created by The Cognitive Accessibility Task Force (Cognitive A11Y TF)of the PFWG and the WCAG WG of the W3C. 
  
 Initial Editor(s) 
  
 Significant Contributors: User group research modules: