W3C

– DRAFT –
Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force Teleconference

21 July 2025

Attendees

Present
Becca_Monteleone, Charli, julierawe, kirkwood, LenB, Rachael, Rain
Regrets
-
Chair
-
Scribe
Becca_Monteleone, gareth

Meeting minutes

<Lisa> agebda?

<Lisa> close item 3

<Lisa> next item

Lisa: new tabs on COGA action item document, including agendas so that people can find info all in one place

Lisa: Orientation training, key links, instructions for using documents also included

<Gareth> +1

<Becca_Monteleone> +1

<Charli> It seems helpful to have it all here

<EA> +present

Lisa: Are people happy with agendas included on this document?

<Jan> +1

<Charu> +present

<Lisa> next item

Lisa: proposal for two subgroup tracks discussed last week: Guidance and Advice as subgroup track #1, Research as subgroup track #2

Lisa: both on Thursdays. Research at 9 am EST, Guidance at 11 am EST (for now)

<kirkwood> +preset+

Lisa: Mondays would review what is covered in Thursday groups and calls for consensus

<julierawe> Charu present+

Lisa: Are people comfortable with those two tracks?

<Rain> +1

<Becca_Monteleone> +1

<Gareth> +1

Charli: Would there be a 3rd group for Editorial as discussed last week?

Lisa: Editorial is usually with Research - but there may be a need for additional calls to be scheduled when certain projects are in process

Julierawe: There may be some editors focused on issue papers so they go to Research. Editors focused on Guidance would go to Guidance calls

Lisa: This would also help because some of the subgroups currently are very small, so this restructure would mean more people would be present

<Lisa> any objecttions

<Jan> +1

<EA> +1

<julierawe> _1

<Charu> +1

<julierawe> +1

<Lisa> next item

<Rain> End of September

Lisa: Schedule for restructure in COGA action items document

*new structure for Making Content Usabel

Rain: Plan to have it coded in Github by end of September

Rain: will not include the final text, will use current text as placeholder text; plan to include the icon draft

Julierawe: would call for consensus for new patterns be before or after it goes into template?

Lisa: Suggests calls for consensus as they are completed

Lisa: will need to put them on the Monday agendas, but current deadline is for drafting only

julierawe: asking about process - draft a pattern, share with internationalization, incorporate internationalization feedback, then share with the wider group for consensus?

Lisa: Added process to document for clarity

julierawe: which subgroup would review?

Lisa: suggest keeping with Tuesday subgroup since they are already familiar with everything

julierawe: after the first 5 patterns, then eventually this is something guidance subgroup would be more involved in

Lisa: Splitting action items in document to clarify what is necessary for next draft vs. following draft(s)

Lisa: Objections or comments?

<Lisa> next item

<Lisa> Subscribe with this link: https://www.w3.org/users/16320/calendar/export/?secret=81dac90653cf90e5dd97560cc3de5fa2a97beacb

Lisa: on W3C calendar page, scroll to bottom of page, there is header labeled "Export Options" where you can subscribe with a link.

Lisa: In your personal calendar, you can then add this link and it will update it with your w3c events

Lisa: There is also an option to download as ics

Charli: Some of the monday and thursday meetings already populate in Outlook calendar

Lisa: Roy may be able to help with a walkthrough

Julierawe: on W3C website, if you go to the calendar, do all the meetings show up there?

<Lisa> next item

Julie will provide walkthrough of W3C calendar after today's meeting

Lisa: at the beginning of each document, we want a comprehensive statement about who is included

<Lisa> Users with disabilities that impact cognitive accessibility include people with:

<Lisa> cognitive, developmental, intellectual, learning, and specific learning disabilities,

<Lisa> language and communication disorders,

<Lisa> neurodivergence,

<Lisa> traumatic brain injury,

<Lisa> mental health impairments, and

<Lisa> temporary impairments that affect cognitive function, such as extreme anxiety, illness and others.

Lisa: better to be redundant and lengthy than to not include certain groups in this statement

EA: do we need to include "people with" in that first line since we already call them users?

<Gareth> +1

<kirkwood> i would want to include aging, or aging related cognitive decline?

julierawe: "those with" can sound othering

stil agree with EA

<julierawe> Alternate wording: "Disabilities that can impact cognitive accessibility include:"

<kirkwood> agreed it doesn’t read correctly

<Rain> Noting that in the age of AI, users are no longer necessarily "people"

<Becca_Monteleone> +1 to julierawe's suggestion

<Rain> +1 to Julie's suggestion

<Jan> I like what Lisa just said: "Users who need cognitive accessibility include people with:

<Rachael> possible wording: "Disabilities that may require cognitive and learning centered accessibility support:"

<Gareth> +1

<Charu> +1

<julierawe> Should we consider rewording in a way to include some "such as" examples? Like "neurodivergence, such as autism" and "learning differences or specific learning disabilities, such as dyslexia and dyscalculia"

Lisa: hesitant to add examples because they may be nested under several different bullet points. Maybe a sentence at the end?

Becca_Monteleone: suggest striking "extreme" from qualifying anxiety

julierawe: "anxiety" seems to be the only specific in the list - so maybe there's a separate bulleted list with more specifics for someone scanning or searching the document

Lisa: Asking for comments in document

EA: impact vs. affect - commented onto docuemnt

EA: "affect" suggests on-going, more nuanced

Gareth: Suggest list should be in one place with a link to it so that we can easily cite it across documents

<Jan> +1 to Gareth's comment about having one universal list

<Jan> Have to drop

<julierawe> +1 to Charli's comment about all mental health impairments affecting cognitive function

Charli: may not need to qualify "mental health impairments" with "that affect cognitive function"

Charli: +1 to having a laundry list of specific examples so people know they are included

Need to drop - sorry!

Minutes manually created (not a transcript), formatted by scribe.perl version 244 (Thu Feb 27 01:23:09 2025 UTC).

Diagnostics

Maybe present: EA, Gareth, Lisa

All speakers: Becca_Monteleone, Charli, EA, Gareth, Julierawe, Lisa, Rain

Active on IRC: Becca_Monteleone, Charli, Charu, EA, Gareth, Jan, julierawe, kirkwood, LenB, Lisa, Rachael, Rain