COGA summary, key questions, and minutes for March 31st meeting

Hi, folks, below is a summary of what we discussed at today's COGA task
force meeting and key questions as we consider possibly replacing
"cognitive and learning disabilities" with "cognitive and neurodivergent
disabilities."

*Summary:*


   - We only got to the first item on the agenda: continuing the discussion
   on how to replace "cognitive and learning disabilities" in the next version
   of "Making Content Usable."
   - We discussed how the new structure of "Making Content Usable" aims to
   streamline the information overall and to keep the focus on telling content
   creators and developers what to do. This approach may mean there are fewer
   places in the next version where we need to use an umbrella phrase.
   - We reviewed the 343 section of this Github tracking doc
   <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FkyRIP3CAuZ-JAazUOAUI64TYCrEfOkKSeBg94mMOkg/edit?resourcekey=0-HM4QyycKbkfCwWAXzIymrw&tab=t.0#heading=h.r0jc39bbtz1i>
   that explains why the new umbrella phrase needs to include "disabilities."
   (That word is essential because legal protections may not apply if we just
   talk about "differences," "challenges," etc.)
   - We added *"cognitive and neurodivergent disabilities"* to the table
   suggesting new umbrella phrases.
      - We talked about how when we use the umbrella phrase in regular
      text, we can offer a pop-up that has a long bulleted list of examples of
      what is covered under this phrase.
      - We also talked about why we may need to use different versions of
      the umbrella phrase in different places, such as the subtitle and
      abstract/introduction, which are detailed in the next section.

*Suggested wording for four key parts of Making Content Usable*

   - *Title: *"Cognitive accessibility guidance"
      - Rain's group suggested this title in Making Content Usable V2
      Structure -- Text
      <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GwIadQU2rmDwqPDeYX6PF7UjnD4D47vqRjvPysXNe-A/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.8op9ructilp5>
      .
      - The task force discussed today why we like it, including that it
      identifies the the purpose of the information that will be shared and is
      short enough so it won't get truncated inappropriately.
   - *Subtitle: *"Making content usable for individuals with cognitive and
   neurodivergent disabilities, such as those that involve learning,
   attention, memory, or mental health"
      - The subtitle would use the new umbrella phrase plus a short "such
      as" list that gives a sense of the breadth of disabilities covered.
      - We discussed the importance of mentioning "mental health" in
      particular.
      - We also discussed why we need a phrase like "such as" so it's clear
      this is not an exhaustive list.
   - *Abstract/introduction first sentence:* “This document explains how to
   make content usable for individuals with [cognitive and neurodivergent
   disabilities ( ← link to resource that we need to create)] such as
   anxiety, autism, age-related forgetfulness, dyslexia, and Down syndrome."
      - We talked about why it might help to mention some specific
      conditions/diagnoses in this sentence. Much like the subtitle, we want
      "such as" examples to show a wide range of disabilities. But the big
      difference is that the abstract uses specific diagnostic terms that users
      are likely to be searching for.
      - In particular, we discussed that it might be helpful for the
      document's SEO overall to mention "autism" in the abstract/introduction.
      - If we go this route of mentioning a wide range of conditions, the
      examples need to be carefully chosen—we pulled this together
very quickly!
   - *Link or pop-up list for "cognitive and neurodivergent disabilities":*
   This link or pop-up list is where we will discuss the full bulleted list of
   disabilities covered, including making clear that "learning disabilities"
   means one thing in the UK and a very different thing in the U.S.

*Key questions*


   - Does "cognitive and neurodivergent disabilities" translate easily into
   other languages?
   - What keywords should we put in the title, subtitle, abstract, and/or
   metadata to help people find this document using search engines?

*Minutes:* https://www.w3.org/2025/03/31-coga-minutes.html

Thanks again to Eric for scribing. Have a good week, everybody!

-- 
[image: understood.logo] <https://www.understood.org/>   *Julie Rawe*
*Director, Content Strategy & Accessibility*
jrawe@understood.org
www.understood.org
she | her | hers

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