This set of modules looks at different Web technologies and provides:
Research modules are primarily intended for groups in The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). For example, they are used as source material for Making Content Usable for People with Cognitive and Learning Disabilities.
They may also contain useful information for:
These modules focus on explaining the issues that lead to diverse user needs impacting web accessibility. For this reason, they may sometimes address a broader scope than web accessibility alone.
This document is part of a set of related informative publications from the Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force (COGA TF), a joint task force of the Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group (APA WG) and the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (AG WG) of the Web Accessibility Initiative.
This is an early draft. The task force intends to add more research and improved discussion. We also intend to make significant editorial changes to be in line with our style guide, including for citations.
Please feel free to let us know any research we should be looking at, as well as other comments.
Feedback on any aspect of the document is accepted. For this publication, the Working Groups particularly seek feedback on the following questions:
To comment, file an issue in the W3C coga GitHub repository. If this is not feasible, send email to public-coga-comments@w3.org (comment archive). Comments are requested by 15th April 2026. In-progress updates to the document may be viewed in the publicly visible editors' draft.
This set of modules looks at different Web technologies and provides:
user needs,
Disabilities that may require cognitive accessibility support include:
Examples of specific disabilities include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia and dyscalculia, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Down syndrome, aphasia, and others.
Research modules identify issues for inclusion, use cases, topics for further research and directions for solutions. They are primarily intended for groups in The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). For example, they are used as source material for Making Content Usable for People with Cognitive and Learning Disabilities.
They may also contain useful information for:
Note that these modules focus on explaining the issues that lead to diverse user needs impacting web accessibility. For this reason, they may sometimes address a broader scope than web accessibility alone.
Note that these research modules used to be referred to as issue papers.
The web is now the main way people stay informed, connect with others, and do things like banking and shopping. People with disabilities who can’t use these tools may become more isolated from society.
In fact, everyday physical objects are often connected to the Internet and have ICT (information and communication technology) or Web interfaces. Using these interfaces is an essential component of maintaining independence, staying in the workforce longer, and staying safe.
Consider the impact as the population ages. By 2050, 21.1% of the world’s population will be over 60, and this number is higher in developed countries. Many people over 60 start to notice changes in their memory and cognitive function such as:
When older adults cannot use technology because it's hard to access or understand, they often need more help from others to do things they could do by themselves. This takes away their independence, violates their rights, and also makes the cost of care much higher for society.
Another growing concern is mental health. Many emotional disabilities affect cognitive function. As the mental crisis grows, it becomes more and more important for people to be able to use services, technology and access community activities through mental health challenges.
Of course there are many other groups included in this work. We invite you to look at this draft and share your thoughts. We’re especially interested in hearing how these issues might affect your technologies and work.
Cognitive and learning disabilities and mental health issues include long-term, short-term, and permanent difficulties relating to cognitive functions, such as:
This is discussed more in the introduction to Making Content Usable for People with Cognitive and Learning Disabilities.
Challenges we found while writing these modules include:
These modules are split into two sections. The first section covers new modules and our current work. The second section includes older modules from a previous analysis by the Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Task Force. Each module talks about a technology-related issue or topic on the internet and includes:
The current modules are:
This is our second batch of research modules. Older drafts of research modules may be out of date, incomplete, or may contain errors. We have added the following text to each older paper. "Editors Note: This draft is out of date, and there may be new research and new technologies that are relevant to this topic."
Please let us know if you think any of these modules need to be updated and maintained.
This is our second batch of research modules. While we believe these modules are still valuable, we are deprecating them. This is because they may be out of date, incomplete, or may contain errors. Please let us know if you think any of these modules need to be updated and maintained.
Note that these research modules used to be referred to as issue papers.
The older modules (editor's drafts only) include: