I’ve expressed caution in the past that the needs of users with learning disabilities are not being as widely addressed as users with other disabilities such as visual or motor impairments (and, of course, some users have a mixture). Some accessibility gurus have gone so far as to dismiss these users as inaccessible:
So what are the real options? They don’t have a lot to do with your work as a designer or developer…..there is no plan of action available to you in order to accommodate learning-disabled visitors in the way that plans are available for other disability groups…there are no simple coding or programming practices- or even complex practices for that matter- in which you can engage to accommodate this group…..We are left with the knowledge that our sites are inaccessible to a known group with next to nothing we can do about it. However anti-ethical that may seem at first blush, in fact it responds to the real world. Recall that antidiscrimination legislation includes exemption for undue hardship or burden.
Joe Clark, Building Accessible Websites p35. New Riders 2003.
And so accessibility as it applies to those with a learning disability has festered somewhat in the unfashionable backwaters of web development. Occasional bursts of light have attempted to raise awareness but still this is not seen as a priority area for web developers. Even the fact that the user group of those with a learning disability outnumber those with a visual _and_ hearing impairment combined doesn’t seem to have raised many eyebrows.
So what am I going to do about it? I don’t know. I know a couple of the guys on the new WaSP Accessibility Task Force and they’ve indicated to me that this is an issue they’re definitely interested in and thats great news but it shouldn’t be just up to them. I don’t think WAI are either aware of or addressing the issue at all. A lot of checkpoints seem contradictory to me and the WCAG seem weighted towards the needs of users with a visual impairment.
Some Resources
If you go digging there are some good resources that will enable you as a designer/developer to make your information easier to access. At EasyInfo for example there’s a whole website dedicated to discussing ways of making information easier to understand for users with learning disabilities – there’s a lot of vital info contributed _by_ users with a learning disability there. Irritatingly its laid out in a frameset (I can see why but there are better ways of doing this obviously) but its well worth a look as there are free guides to design options, picture banks, using words etc in the Library and Research sections.
There are also guidelines at Learning Disabilities.org.uk on designing a website thats accessible to those with a learning disability.
The Future
I think we have to face some difficult realities about what web accessibility is and face up to the fact that as a community we simply aren’t addressing the needs of a sizable percentage of users. I don’t see how we can have it both ways. If we see web accessibility as in terms of:
Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.
Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web.
Then we have to actually _do it_ , commit to it and move forward on that basis. Or we need to abandon the concept of ‘access by everyone, regardless of disability’ as an attainable goal. Personally I don’t think we need to do that. What we _do_ need as a community is to start looking at specific methodologies using web standards and innovative use of CSS that we can serve up accessible content in an accessible, usable way but we can only do this when we start to actively accept the challenge. We need a starting point, a catalyst – thats my hope for the new Task Force – a group that can make accessibility for users with a learning disability as cool and funky as accessibility and web standards have become over the last year or so.
Left Brain Right Brain 
Most of us (ironically including Joe Clarke?) have put more effort in to finding excuses than making our works more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Infact, this is the only place I’ve seen the subject being discussed at all. As designers are more exposed to accessible design practices, it is important that those who are familiar with such issues speak up. This was definitely an eye-opener for me.
Accessibility for learning-disabled persons has not “festered,” nor is it deemed “unfashionable.” It is merely intrinsically difficult and, in many contexts, impossible. The “difficult realities about what Web accessibility” we must face up to include unavoidable facts about making a medium based on words accessible to a group that has trouble reading words.
I’d appreciate it if you and your friends stopped suggesting that accessibilitistas in general and I in particular don’t give a shit. We give a shit. The problem is qualitatively different from other disabilities and will, in some cases, remain unresolvable.
WCAG 2 has two entire sections (Perceivable and Understandable) that deal with LD. It’s true that the number of experts working on that topic within the Working Group is about as high as the number of experts working on other topics– practically nil. One of those experts and I may eventually get around to making a joint submission.
You also seem to have completely overlooked the Australians’ rather interesting published techniques in showing and hiding different complexities of content. I suppose that contradicts your biases about accessibility advocates.
The sooner you stop throwing shade on those of us who understand how difficult the problem is *and actually say so*, the sooner we’ll be interested in working with people like you.
If you want to join the ATF, be my guest. I can hook you up with them, since I know them all personally.
Nice to see your usual reasoned response Joe.
“The “difficult realities about what Web accessibility†we must face up to include unavoidable facts about making a medium based on words accessible to a group that has trouble reading words.”
Well, yes, thats kind of my point. Care to explain why you don’t do this? You’re alos making rather large assumptions about ‘a group that has trouble reading words’. Some learning disability groups have no trouble reading words at all. That doesn’t make the site more accessible though. Maybe you shouldn’t generalise about ‘a group’ and realise that learning difficulties are all differrent to each other?
“I’d appreciate it if you and your friends stopped suggesting that accessibilitistas in general and I in particular don’t give a shit. We give a shit. The problem is qualitatively different from other disabilities and will, in some cases, remain unresolvable.”
I’m sure you would appreciate it but then I’d appreciate it if you and your friends stopped suggesting that nothing can be done for this group of users. Maybe more than 2 pages out of over 300 in your next book might be a good start?
“You also seem to have completely overlooked the Australians’ rather interesting published techniques in showing and hiding different complexities of content. I suppose that contradicts your biases about accessibility advocates.”
I have? Which Australians would these be? The ones who discuss cognative impairment on Gez’s site that I linked to above? By the way, I consider myself an advocate of accessibility and thus have no issue with the vast majority of accessibility advocates. I supose that contradicts your generalisations about my post.
“The sooner you stop throwing shade on those of us who understand how difficult the problem is and actually say so, the sooner we’ll be interested in working with people like you.”
So your think this whole post is about ‘throwing shade’ (whatever the hell that means) on _you_ ? Quite the ego you have there. I mention you once. The majority of my post is bringing awareness about an issue of accessibility that people like you don’t discuss. I do wonder why you seem so upset about me bringing up this issue.
I’m not sure what the ‘and actually say so’ part of your paragraph refers to or what I’m expected to say to that but I’ll assume that you mean I don’t know what I’m talking about regarding learning disabilities. If thats so, then you’d be wrong. Maybe a quick browse around the rest of my blog might relieve you of that assumption.
“If you want to join the ATF, be my guest. I can hook you up with them, since I know them all personally.”
I _so_ need to get a ‘roll eye’ smiley.
“I so need to get a ‘roll eye’ smiley.”
Should be one in the wp-images folder, why are you not surprised I know this.
While you’re at it haven’t you upgraded to 1.5.1.3 yet
It’s still needs some work, and its set so it won’t loop, because animated smileys that don’t stop are really annoying.
Two pages out of nearly 400 accurately represents the quantity of substantive and accurate advice that I could reasonably give. I suppose I could do what some advocates do and publish PDFs promoting the use of Comic Sans as a typeface for dyslexic people, but I preferred to write what I could back up.