Draft response for approval

This is the draft response to issue 198
<https://github.com/w3c/coga/issues/198>. Please review this and +1 if you
agree or send changes by 25 March.

Thank you.

***

Dear Amanda and  Emma,

Thank you for taking the time to review and comment on  Making content
usable for people with cognitive and learning disabilities. Please see our
responses in bold to your comments broken out below. You can review the
changes we madea on our most current branch
<https://raw.githack.com/w3c/coga/consistency_checks/content-usable/index.html#help-the-user-stay-safe-pattern>
.

With thanks,

The Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Task Force

1. We have found trust of the device or system to be integral. This could

   translate to the importance of technologies that communicate safe or
unsafe

   sites to visit.

Content usable focuses on  making web content usable rather than systems
and devices. From a content standpoint, we believe we have partially
addressed  trust within 4.5.11 Pattern: Keep Users' Information Safe and
Help Users Understand Known Risks.

We appreciate this comment because it let us know we need to better the
scope 4.5.11 in content usable as well as the document as a whole. And the
scope within the context of a full system.

There might be technologies that help users understand what is safe or
unsafe Sites would be an API or add on, that the user chooses to add. As
such it can be supported by the pattern: Enable APIs and Extensions.  We
have not integrated this here but would like to do so.
<https://www.w3.org/TR/coga-usable/#pattern-enable-apis-and-extensions>Would
you please send us the research you are referencing so we can add this?

2.  Some of our participants put all of their payments on auto-pay so as
not to forget a bill payment and then they just verify their credit card.


We think there is a potential gap here but it would help us if you could
share research and more details about this topic. A more specific example
within a website context would be helpful. Because of our focus on web
content we think this is out of our scope but please let us know if we
misunderstood.

3.  Individuals have shared that when a screen is not visible, it is
essentially gone for them. Therefore, seeing all possible documents at once
is important to reduce confusion as opposed to folders.

We would like to take this into consideration and explore how to fit it in.
Would you please send the research you are referencing? Additional examples
within a website context would be helpful.

4.  Relatedly, spatial representations can be very important for technology
use. For example, we have spoken to people that use spatial representations
on their desktops as a sort of filing system.

We have created issue 279 <https://github.com/w3c/coga/issues/279> to
explore how to add this. If you have any additional research we can
reference that would be helpful. Thank you for pointing out this gap.

5. Everything that the document notes for MCI could be said for people with
dementia as well, only magnified.  In terms of the characteristics of
dementia, we think that the following

points are important to include:

   -

   It is great that the report describes the different types of dementia.
   -

      Though there is tremendous variability even within a condition, it
   may be important to note that different types of dementia can affect
   individuals differently and uniquely (Meiland et al. 2017; Scherer et al.
   2012).ough cognitive changes are the most common changes discussed with
   dementia, there is an emerging understanding of the other kinds of changes
   that people experience, that will surely impact their technology use. Many
   of the points below come from a document (attached) written by a dementia
   advocate:



While we are trying to ensure these patterns support individuals with a
wide range of cognitive and learning disabilities, we are trying to avoid a
deep discussion of disability in this document. This is an evolving
document.  We will integrate this research back into our research
documentation when we circle back to them. Thank you very much for the
references.

6. Sensitivity to loud and complex environments (overloaded by over
stimulus) often with heightened sensitivity to sound

*This is partially addressed in 3.6 Help Users Maintain Focus but we also
added it to 4.6.1 LImit interruptions.*


7. Avoid busy patterns because they are visually confusing

*This is partially addressed in 3.5 Help Users Focus but we also added it
to the design pattern 4.4.11 Ensure Foreground Content is not Obscured by
Background*

 8. “brain blindness”: where the person has capable vision but the brain

      is no longer able to process or find the right match for what they’re

      seeing. Contrast is very important because of changes in vision as a
result

      of certain dementias. Color orientation is not always reliable for
people with dementia

      because they may associate colors differently or not understand what
the

      color is meant to represent

*We are adding this in several places in the current version but will
explore this further, along with low vision experts, for the next version
and for WCAG 3.0. We have created issue #137 to track this. We would
appreciate anyone who can point us to research in this area. We would also
welcome any and all assistance in this work*



-- 
Rachael Montgomery, PhD
Director, Accessible Community
rachael@accessiblecommunity.org

"I will paint this day with laughter;
I will frame this night in song."
 - Og Mandino