Expanding What It Means To Be Accessible: Addressing the Workplace Technology Needs of Users with Cognitive Disabilities December 11, :00 – 3:30 p.m. EST

Jim Tobias PEAT Strategic Partner & Subject Matter Expert Julia Bascom Director of Programs, Autistic Self Advocacy Network Your Session Chairs

Logistics Audio is also available over a phone line: – Dial in number: – Conference code: # Submit questions at any time during the presentation: – Type directly into the Q&A window your screen – – Captioning is available at:

ASAN-PEAT Collaboration ASAN-PEAT online national dialogue hosted in 2013: “Join the Conversation: Improving the Accessibility of Online Tools for Workers with Intellectual Disabilities” Report on data from the dialogue that reviews common themes and suggests potential next steps for research, policy, and programming

5 Richard Crespin CEO, CollaborateUp Senior Fellow, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Your Moderator

Today’s Panelists Peter Blanck, Chairman, Syracuse University’s Burton Blatt Institute and author of e:Quality: The Struggle for Web Accessibility by People with Cognitive Disabilities Lisa Seeman, Facilitator of the Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force (COGA) Under WCAG and PF Greg McGrew, Product Testing Lab Coordinator, Assistive Technology Partners (ATP), University of Colorado-Denver Emily Shea Tanis, Associate Director of Research, University of Colorado Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities

Peter Blanck Chairman, Syracuse University’s Burton Blatt Burton Blatt Institute Author, eQuality: The Struggle for Web Accessibility by People with Cognitive Disabilities

eQuality

Lisa Seeman, Athena I.C.T Facilitator of the Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force (COGA) Under WCAG and PF

COGA The Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force is a task force of the Protocols and Formats Working Group (PFWG) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group Aim: To improve web accessibility for people with cognitive and learning disabilities – This will begin with research and gap analysis. – The group will develop draft proposed guidance and techniques to make web content, content authoring, and user agent implementation accessible and more useable by people with cognitive and learning disabilities. – It will also review existing techniques, consider ways to improve them, and build new techniques where necessary.

Conditions that impact a person’s ability to use a website include: Memory – Dyslexia – visual or auditory – Dementia – short term and working memory Reading text Problem solving Keeping focused (attention span) Computation (for example calculations) Cognitive Disabilities

The largest group of disabilities are people with cognitive disabilities Meanwhile, many systems have become more and more complex – Web applications – TV interfaces, heating – Phone systems Cognitive Disabilities

Some advantages of Neuro-Diversity in the workplace; Out-of-the Box thinking: – Study of 102 entrepreneurs in the U.S. showing that 35% identified themselves as dyslexic ( – Genetic link between a dopamine receptor gene variation associated with ADHD and the tendency to be an entrepreneur ( Strong points are often stronger – Experience of the aging community Understand your market

The Work Ahead of Us UsersGap AnalysisRoadmapTechTechniques All on our wiki

What Might We End Up With? Accessibility for Cognitive and LD Simple techniques for everyone Technique structure Techniques for specific user groups Meta data to find the right version Semantics for adaptive interfaces Supportive material

Example: Separate Form & Content Chapter 1 introduction to accessibility – 1.2 Accessibility and CSS Tools :before for symbols Colors for heading levels Key points Clear structure in mark up via heading levels Easier to follow

User Needs Differ Dyslexia or Dyscalculia Alzheimer's or Aphasia  Conclusion – use text with the symbol SAVE

Greg McGrew, MEBME Product Testing Lab Coordinator | Assistive Technology Partners Department of Bioengineering University of Colorado Denver | Anschutz Medical Campus

Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers on Technology for People with Cognitive Disabilities RERC-ACT ( ) – Research Projects – Development Projects RERC-ATACI ( ) – Research Projects – Development Projects

Usability Testing 50 products used by people with cognitive disabilities – Mix of AT and general consumer products – Open box usability testing of basic entry-level product functions – Tested with people with mild to moderate cognitive disabilities

Usability Testing

Notable Issues Process issues – Recruitment – Use of standard measures – Participants’ interest in pleasing Product design issues – Too many input options impede user success – Users like products that talk to them – Touch screens are not ideal input mediums

Future Work Usability testing new and emerging technologies – Smartphones – Tablets – Wearables – Smarthome environments

Google Glass(like)

Future Work Investigation of touch screen UI designs – Among current input element designs (buttons, layouts), which inhibit and which enhance success in product use for people with cognitive disabilities? – Inform development of standards for products used by people with cognitive disabilities

Shea Tanis, Ph.D Associate Director of Research Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities at the University of Colorado

Cognitive Disability Source: Braddock, D., Coleman Institute and Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado, 2015.

Number of Supported Employment Workers in the U.S. Declines 7% Source: Braddock, D., Coleman Institute and Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado, 2015.

Changing the Culture: Person to Environment Fit Disability is a natural part of the human experience Technology becomes a critical support to enhance functioning and improve the person to environment fit Well matched technology can reduce and even eliminate functional limitations Cognitively accessible technologies

Cognitively Accessible Technologies Cognitive Accessibility: “Environments, technology, and materials that are cognitively accessible are those that incorporate design features to ensure that people with limitations in cognitive abilities--including language ability and auditory reception, reasoning and idea production, memory and learning, visual perception, cognitive speed, and knowledge and achievement—are able to access those environments and use the technology and materials.” – Wehmeyer (2014) Coleman Institute Cognitive Technology Database

Employers & Technology Providers Embrace the person to environment fit model Explore cognitively accessible technologies Employ people with cognitive disabilities Develop user centered product and service design Build partnerships Meaningfully integrate principles of technology and information access

The Rights of People With Cognitive Disabilities to Technology and Information Access David Braddock, Jeffery Hoehl, Shea Tanis, Enid Ablowitz, and Laura Haff er Rights of People with Cognitive Disabilities to Technology and Information Access

Abstract Information and communication technologies are ubiquitous and valuable tools for billions of people worldwide today. Yet people with cognitive disabilities, particularly individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, have quite limited access to such technologies. This article presents the case for mounting significant efforts to advance the rights of millions of people with cognitive disabilities to technology and information access. A formal statement of these rights is presented, formulated by professionals and consumers representing a variety of disciplines and perspectives. The statement is currently endorsed by 190 national, state and local organizations in the developmental disabilities field in the United States. Rights of People with Cognitive Disabilities to Technology and Information Access

Making Legislative History March 3, 2014 Colorado House and Senate unanimously pass a Joint Resolution on The Rights of People with Cognitive Disabilities to Technology and Information Access Sample of Endorsing Organizations: ASAN, AAIDD, The Arc, ANCOR, CCD, SABE, NADD, ATAP, Autism Society of America, APSE, AUCD, Burton Blatt Institute; several State DD Councils, RESNA, Council on Quality and Leadership, Institute for Matching Person and Technology, Lutheran Services in America Disability Network, Harvard Law School Project on Disability, etc. Endorse the Declaration at

Contact Information Shea Tanis, Ph.D Iris Avenue, Suite 200 Boulder, CO

QUESTIONS?

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