[Accessibility] Fwd: Introductions, common interest - Technology Standards for Cognitive Disabilities

[Sandy Gabrielli]

I was recently at the FSG Accessibility Workgroup
meeting that was held here in Hawaii where the topic
of standards Linux accessibility were being discussed.
 I was mentioning that I would like to see some group
begin to discuss cognitive disabilities to be included
in the standards for human computer interface, OS
accessibility, telecommunications, web access or in
general ADA standards.

I'm not sure that the current standards address their
needs, I'm guessing they don't, but I haven't done any
real research about that.  I did take a cursory look
and nothing popped out at me.  I haven't identified
any groups that are already looking into these issues
either.  We did notice at the FSG meeting that there
was not a group specifically assigned to this task,
and there was general agreement that the topic comes
up, but everyone generally pushes it into the future. 
So here I am, wondering who else might be interested
in the topic.

And so, I've included you in this email, because I
think you may also have some insights, knowledge, or
opinions about the subject that could help get
discussion going.

In order to think about standards or accomodations it
would probably be good to some general research. So I
would guess that a good starting place would be to
gather up the standards
(http://www.access-board.gov/indexes/accessindex.htm),
find some experts in cognitive issues( not me, I'm
just interested) and get a general definition of which
cognitive disabilities are going to be most impacted
by technology(learning and intellectual, Attention
deficits, dyslexia, and how they manifest - working
memory, level of understanding, complexity of use,
ability to retrace steps, numbers of steps required to
perform tasks).

Please feel free to send me back any information or
leads that you have regarding the subject.  I don't
have any sort of formal working strategy for this yet.
 I'm just gathering up information for now.  I think
the issue is probably too big for just FSG
Accessibility to address, and I'm not sure that they
are the best group, but it's a start.



=====
Sandy Gabrielli
Senior Software Engineer, Archimedes Hawaii Project
University of Hawaii
879 N King Street
Honolulu, HI 96817-4514
Ph: (808) 832-3729
FAX: (808) 832-3724