People With Cognitive and Learning Disabilities
The largest disability group and the least served by automated testing. Almost nothing here can be caught by a scanner.
This is the biggest group, and a scanner will tell you nothing about it.
A long government form with unlabeled requirements, a session that expires without warning, an error message that says "invalid input" without saying which input or why, navigation that moves between pages. Each of these is survivable alone. Together they produce abandonment — and because the user does not identify as disabled and does not file a complaint, the organization reads the drop-off as a conversion problem rather than an access problem.
Scale: About 1 in 8 U.S. adults reports serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions — the most commonly reported disability type in the survey. (Source: CDC. Survey-based disability figures undercount — treat this as a floor.)
What they're using
- Reading and text-to-speech tools
- Reader modes and simplified views
- Password managers, which is why blocking paste into password fields is an accessibility failure
- Often no assistive technology at all
7 barriers we find most often, and the criteria behind them.
Errors that do not say what to do
"Invalid input" identifies nothing. The message must name the field, describe the problem, and — where the correct format is knowable — suggest the fix.
Success criteria: 3.3.1 Error Identification A · 3.3.3 Error Suggestion AA
Inconsistent navigation and labeling
Navigation that reorders between pages, or the same function labeled three different ways, forces the user to relearn the interface at every step.
Success criteria: 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation AA · 3.2.4 Consistent Identification AA
Time limits
Sessions that expire silently and forms that clear themselves are catastrophic for anyone who needs longer to read, decide, or gather information.
Success criteria: 2.2.1 Timing Adjustable A
Instructions that arrive too late
Password rules revealed only after a failed attempt, required-field markers explained nowhere, formats implied rather than stated.
Success criteria: 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions A · 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose AA
Cognitive tests as security
Distorted-text CAPTCHAs, memory-based puzzles, and re-entry of information the site already has. WCAG 2.2 added a criterion specifically to stop authentication from requiring a cognitive function test.
Success criteria: 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum) AA · 1.1.1 Non-text Content A
Irreversible actions with no confirmation
Legal, financial, and data-deleting actions need to be reversible, checkable, or confirmed.
Success criteria: 3.3.4 Error Prevention (Legal, Financial, Data) AA
Unexpected changes on focus or input
A select that navigates on change, a field that submits the form when it loses focus. Context should change on request, not by surprise.
Success criteria: 3.2.1 On Focus A · 3.2.2 On Input A
The changes that actually remove the barrier.
Rewrite error messages to name the field and the fix
"Enter the date as MM/DD/YYYY" beats "invalid input" for every user, and it is usually a one-line change.
Show requirements before the user starts
Password rules, accepted file types, required documents, and formats stated up front.
Allow password managers and paste
Blocking paste in a password or verification field forces memorization, which is exactly what 3.3.8 prohibits.
Keep navigation and labels stable
Same order, same names, same place on every page.
Let people save and come back
For any form longer than one screen, persistence is an accessibility feature.
Three tests you can run before you call anyone.
- Submit your longest form with every field wrong and read the messages aloud. Would a stranger know what to do?
- Start a form, wait past the session timeout, and come back. What happens to the data?
- Try to paste into your password field.
If any of those go badly, you have your answer and you did not need a vendor to get it. What a vendor is for is the part after: knowing which of the 55 criteria that maps to, how deep it goes, and what it costs to fix properly rather than patch.
Run the Free CheckerWhere this shows up in practice
Other people the standard was written for.
People With Dyslexia and Reading Differences
Reading differences are common enough that designing for them is designing for a large share of your audience.
Read the profilePeople With Vestibular Disorders and Motion Sensitivity
Parallax, autoplay video, and large scroll-triggered animation can make someone physically ill. The fix is one media query.
Read the profileAll 55 Success Criteria
Every Level A and AA criterion in plain language, with the failure we see most often for each.
Reference