Cognitive diversity - content for users with diverse cognitive needs or about neurodiversity, including autism

[sarawilcox]

What

We know that teams are researching with users with diverse cognitive needs. Please share your findings here so that we can improve services for these users.

Related issues

We already have some other related issues. Please add your findings or other comments to these issues if relevant.

• [ ] easy read/Easy Read
• [ ] Learning difficulties - meeting the needs of users with learning difficulties

[sarawilcox]

Some content design recommendations from NHS Test and Trace cognitive diversity user research:

• providing a range of information formats (text, video, audio, easy read etc.)
• ensuring plain English is used
• breaking text into small chunks and using clear headings
• jargon is defined clearly if it must be used
• accompanying text with images to help convey meaning
• setting expectations of the full user journey and what is expected of participants when (picture guides/social stories, and videos) can be really helpful for this
• avoiding vague or subjective language
• as much as possible only showing information that is relevant to the user to reduce cognitive overload

[sarawilcox]

W3G Making Content Usable for People with Cognitive and Learning Disabilities

• Summary
• Use clear and understandable content

[EllenDoyle-zz]

https://hscic365.sharepoint.com/DiversityandInclusion/Pages/Celebrating-Neurodiversity-Awareness-week-at-NHS-Digital-.aspx @sarawilcox - I've been thinking about this and I believe some of the sessions in Neurodiversity Awareness Week may help you and others understand the subject more, as most of the speakers and bloggers are neurodiverse themselves or have a close relative who is. Some Wikipedia outlines may also help: ADHD - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_deficit_hyperactivity_disorder Autism - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism Dyslexia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia Dyspraxia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developmental_coordination_disorder Dyscalculia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyscalculia There are more but I could go on forever....

[sarawilcox]

Web design for neurodiversity: Creating a more inclusive web

[EllenDoyle]

Neurodiversity is a commonly used umbrella term for autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, etc. These are neurodevelopmental conditions. Some are connected to psychiatry / mental health, whereas others are not. There is some commonality between them. Many people with these conditions identify as neurodiverse or being neurodivergent.

[sarawilcox]

See NHS Digital's Writing about disability and difference: words to use and avoid, drawn up by the Ability Network.

[EllenDoyle]

I am merging #81 into this ticket as they both refer to Neurodiverse conditions.

Details from #81 are: Terminology around autism can be a sensitive subject for autistic people.

We need to produce some guidelines on what terms to use/avoid.

For example:

autism vs autism spectrum disorder (ASD) autistic person vs person with autism "challenging behaviour" signs vs symptoms

81 to be closed from today.

[EllenDoyle]

Content should be written to ensure accessibility to those with cognitive difference. This includes simple layout of pages, use of plain English, direct language to avoid ambiguity.

[sarawilcox]

Autism

The DHSC team working on cognitive diversity user research said that their charity partners preferred the term "autistic people" to "people with autism".

Note, this is different from what we say generally in the style guide: "We use positive language and do not label people when talking about disabilities and conditions."

See, for example, the language on the National Autistic Society website.

NHS Digital's Ability Network says: "Some people prefer words like autistic, dyspraxic or dyslexic whereas some people prefer to put the person first. You should also avoid using person with or who has autism as this implies illness. Some people see it as part of their identity and not as an illness."

[Jean-Elg]

Sorry I'm late to this. I've added comment on related issue on Learning difficulties as we've had some useful feedback from NHSE/I Learning Disability and Austism Programme regarding style guide and content.