Test your website as much as possible with people with intellectual disabilities, to be sure it works well for them. Here are some tips on how to carry out a test.

• Decide on the sections of your site that you want to test.
• Decide which users you need to test your site (find out more about different degrees of intellectual disability in the ‘people with intellectual disability’ section of this site).
• Define tasks for users to carry out.
• Decide if there is anything qualitative you want to test (whether users like the site, find it attractive, would be likely to use it).
• Identify what you would need to know about users before the test starts (age, experience of the web, nature of intellectual, learning, sensory and physical impairments).
• Draw up an observation template to help you take notes during the test.
• Test the test!

preparing for testinguser testing

When testing, aim to:

• Have a natural discussion.
• Go through questions in any order, to help the discussion be natural.
• Re-word and repeat the questions if necessary.
• Go off on a tangent if the discussion leads that way.
• Ask enough questions to build a good picture.
• Talk a lot less than your tester does.
• Listen, prompt, clarify. Take notes later if doing it while you talk interrupts the flow.

discussing the testgoing through the questions

Before testing, carry out an interview to find out about the tester and gain insight into:

• Level of technical awareness.
• Attitudes towards the Web.
• Experience of Web use.
• Any assistive technology normally used (find out more about assistive technologies in the ‘information about accessibility‘ section.

interviewing your testerobserving technical awareness

Alt attributes (which provide text alternatives for blind users with screen readers) still need to be used appropriately when designing sites with ID accessibility in mind.

In addition, symbol sets can be used to enhance understanding for some people with intellectual disabilities who are familiar with the symbols. There is a range of symbol sets, used in different contexts. There is more information about the available symbol sets below, and links to further information about them.

Symbol Sets: Supporting Literacy with Images

Makaton

Makaton is best known as a Sign-Supported English system. The Makaton charity also produces symbols which are used in a variety of ways (for example on paper and electronically) to enhance all forms of communication. Symbols and signs are closely linked where this is possible. Makaton is mostly used in interpersonal communication contexts. There is some use of Makaton amongst adults, particularly if Makaton signing is in use. The strong line art makes Makaton accessible in terms of visual perception.

PCS

PCS is the most colourful symbol set. The colour adds complexity for perception, however. The imagery is often quite childish. There is not much adult vocabulary. PCS is mostly used for manual picture-exchange (printed on cards) or selectively to supplement Widgit.

Widgit Literacy Symbols

Widgit is the most popular symbol set in the UK. Line art and limited palette options are also available, along with optimised sets for people with visual impairments. A large library is updated regularly and toolsets from Widgit include a symbol web browser, amongst other applications.

Change Picture Bank

Change Picture Bank is used more flexibly in terms of symbol meaning. It is firmly rooted in the adult world and in person-centred planning (PCP) initiatives. It is often easier to understand for non-symbol users, especially where abstract concepts are being represented.

People with learning disabilities are all different. When it comes to structuring a website, this means that what works for some people with learning disabilities won’t work for others.

simple choicessimple navigation

The best practice is to provide several routes through content. Routes which mean lots of steps, but few options, may be the most accessible for users with more significant learning disability. So deep structures sometimes work better than wide structures for this group. Or providing access to a small section of content may often be required to meet the needs of more significantly disabled users.

To make the text content of your website as accessible as possible for people with intellectual disabilities, try to do the following:

• Use clear, concise headings.
• Use pictures to supplement textual content.
• Group text into blocks underneath each heading.
• Use lists where appropriate.
• Left-align text; don’t justify it.
• Separate text visually from the borders of the surrounding design.
• Ensure lines do not exceed 70 – 80 characters.
• Use descriptive link text (not ‘click here’).
• Use emphasis on important words that convey the meaning of the text.
• Use clear, simple and concise language.

Writing Style and Reading Level

Meeting the success criteria of WCAG 2.0 at AAA requires text to be written at a reading age equivalent to lower secondary school (or to provide such a version as a supplementary ‘Easy Read’ version). For people with intellectual disabilities, this text level is often too high. Tools such as Juicy Studio’s Readability Test can provide an indication of reading grade. But text level is ultimately a matter of judgement and awareness.

Here are some further tips on enhancing your text for more severely intellectually disabled audiences:

• Aim for lower primary school chronological reading age (in the UK,   10-20% of the population will benefit from this).
• You are not writing for children, but the task is similar. Assume adult concepts, expectations, and life-experiences.
• Don’t assume that people will feel patronized; they know this is easy read content.
• Use short sentences. Where you are using a comma, you sometimes need a full-stop.
• Limit use of punctuation to full-stop, question and exclamation marks if possible.
• Use short or single sentence paragraphs, and layout with exaggerated spacing.
• Aim to build each sentence around a keyword.
• If a concept or keyword is important, don’t be afraid of labouring it.
• Word length and number of syllables are a good guide, but not definitive. Think of vocabulary in terms of ‘high frequency words’.
• If jargon is required, it should be explicitly explored as primary content (that is, not marked up).
• Ensure the meaning of pronouns is absolutely clear, or use nouns repeatedly. Take particular care with personal pronouns. It’s better to use a name repeatedly, even though it may be bad style.
• Plan your writing in advance. If re-writing longer text, list the key points of each paragraph before beginning.
• On longer pieces, separate content using multiple pages. Keep the number of points per page low

use animation, video and sounduse voicing to read text aloud

But go beyond text. Incorporate movement and interesting interaction. A text heavy web page where nothing moves can be boring. Many people with intellectual disabilities like dynamic, interesting pages which use motion to attract attention or highlight what’s important.

test to ensure accessibilityuse various forms of media