B.1 Why Make a Policy?

Many content providers want to reach user groups such as people with age-related forgetfulness and millennials with cognitive and learning disabilities. This can be because:

• they have a commitment to inclusion,
• to enable growth in these high value, under-serviced, markets, and
• many services and agencies are required to use easy to understand language and to be usable by vulnerable groups.

Typically, there are many more people with cognitive and learning disabilities in the target audience than developers are aware of. Without a policy or requirements in place that address cognitive and learning disabilities, content providers lose this part of the target audience.

When deciding how and where to apply this document, consider how important the content is to the user. For example, web content and applications should follow as much of the advice in this document as possible, if they affect:

• individual safety concerns,
• health,
• critical services,
• autonomy,
• care-giving,
• social integration, and
• workplace needs.

It is also important to consider if content can help users save money in care-giving or cause individuals with cognitive and learning disabilities to leave the workforce due to lack of appropriately designed content or interfaces.

Developing of a plan or policy can include the following steps:

1. Define the scenarios to be included in the policy by addressing the environments or situations in which the policy will apply.
2. Review the different design pattern criteria and sections and decide if they are relevant to the environmental or situational scenarios.
3. Develop a policy with requirements based on an analysis of the scenarios.

Policy makers should:

• Familiarize themselves with the sections of the document and design scenarios for which apply to their organizations.
• Determine how much user testing is possible, based on the scope or expense for the affected sites.
• Refer to the section on user testing for additional information and reducing costs.

The following are examples of scenarios that may be covered by a policy:

• Emergency services content - such as police, fire, emergency medical services, etc.
• Critical services content - such as water, health care, phone and internet services, and government services.
• Workplace content - including but not limited to professional sites and productivity tools.
• Individual content and autonomy - such as apps, interfaces to run home devices, book a cab, write an email; content that facilitates autonomy.
• General content - for widespread adoption of all web sites.

B.2 Business Considerations

This document can help you meet the needs of underserved end-users such as:

• high net worth senior citizens, a 7.1 trillion-dollar growth market, and
• high potential impaired by cognitive and learning disabilities and those impacted by situational impairments.

For example, one of the most reliable market projections is that the population is aging. A growing number of consumers are older. In many countries, more of the wealth lies with an older demographic.

As people age, disabilities increase. This includes age-related forgetfulness and a slower speed of learning new designs. This may make consumers feel excluded and that their needs are not considered. Accessibility can give the consumer the trust and feeling of being looked after. In contrast, if a site is difficult for people with cognitive and learning disabilities, the older population is likely to feel that the group is not interested in them as a market.

On the other hand, according to Georgia State University’s Center for Mature Consumer Studies, today’s mature market (those aged 55 and above) already controls 75 percent of America’s wealth and 70 percent (most) of its disposable income. Clearly, this expanding demographic is an important market for many organizations.

Additional studies have shown that the mature market is online. They may even be outpacing the use by younger user groups, when it comes to adopting new technologies and online media. However, their online needs are underserved. Research suggests that seniors manage to complete only 55.3% (about half) of attempted tasks online.

For additional information and sources see the developer resources page. Note that more business information about general accessibility is available at the business case for digital accessibility.