B. Appendix: Considerations for Uptake in Different Contexts and Policies
Many agencies and services are required to use plain language and to be usable by vulnerable groups. This document will help content developers know what to do to achieve this goal across different geographical areas and include user groups of people with learning and cognitive disabilities. In addition many sites want to reach user groups such as millennials with learning disabilities and people with age-appropriate forgetfulness. This can be because of their commitment to inclusion, or to enable growth in these high value, under-serviced, markets. Typically, there are many more people in the target audience with a cognitive or learning disability than the content provider is aware of, and many content providers are often losing these user groups.
User considerations should be taken into account when deciding how to apply this document. For instance, Web content and applications that affect individual safety concerns, health, critical services, autonomy, care-giving, social integration, and workplace needs should follow as much of the advice in this document as possible.
This Appendix provides guidance and considerations on how to use this document and the design patterns (general, repeatable solutions to commonly occurring problems) to build a policy or requirements regarding web content to ensure that the needs of individuals with learning or cognitive disabilities are addressed. Web content designed without consideration for the needs of individuals with learning or cognitive disabilities may create accessibility barriers to the needs of the end-user. Development of a plan or policy includes the following steps which are discussed in this section:
- Define the scenarios to be included in the policy (i.e., address the environments or situations in which the policy will apply)
- Review the different design pattern criteria and decide if they are relevant to the environmental or situational scenarios.
- Develop a policy with requirements based on an analysis of the environmental or situational scenarios and the design pattern criteria
Policy makers should:
- Familiarize themselves with the design patterns as they relate to the environmental or situational scenarios for which they are responsible.
- Determine if user testing is needed or desired, with regard to the scope or expense for the affected sites.
- Refer to the issue paper on user testing for additional information.
User considerations should also be taken into account when developing scenario-based policies, such as individual safety concerns, autonomy and savings in care-giving, and the cost of individuals with cognitive or learning disabilities leaving the workforce more than necessary due to lack of appropriately designed content or interfaces.
The following are examples of scenarios that may be covered by a policy:
- Emergency services content - police, fire, emergency medical services, etc.
- Critical services content - water, health care, phone and internet services, government services
- Workplace content - including but not limited to professional sites and productivity tools
- Individual content - apps, interfaces to run home devices, book a cab, write an email; any content or functionality that facilitates autonomy
Examples of scenario-based policies:
- Emergency Services: A policy for emergency services might require the inclusion of all design patterns. The inclusion of all design patterns would help to ensure that individuals, regardless of learning or cognitive disability, can quickly access and interpret emergency information and respond appropriately.
- Critical Services: A policy for critical services might require any design pattern with a medium to high user need level. A robust system for inclusion of most design patterns would ensure that individuals can quickly access and interpret information that directly impacts their use cases.
- General Legislative Policy: A legislative policy for widespread adoption of website design might include any items that do not require human testing and have a high user need level.
- Workplace Legislative Policy: A legislative policy that applies to content in the workplace and may include any items that are optionally testable and have a medium to high user need level.