The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is creating cognitive design standards

Are your technology products too complex?

Share your frustrations and favorite features for cell phones, microwaves, TV remotes, and other gadgets at the Cognitive Accessibility Facebook page. This project needs your ideas.

The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is creating cognitive design standards. These will allow technology products to meet the needs of people who have cognitive difficulties resulting from conditions such as Alzheimer’s, attention disorder, autism, brain injury, cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome, learning disability, Parkinson’s disease, and stroke. This work will also create products that are more usable by seniors and young children. Eventually, information about products could be put into a feature-matching web site, so that it is easy for people to find products that fit their unique needs.

How is it done?
The standards are created through the RESNA Standards Committee on Cognitive Technologies; the research comes from the RERC-ACT at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus; and funding is provided by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research under the US Department of Education (Grant #H133E090003) and the Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities. Please click here for more info.

How can you help?
These researchers need ideas from people who understand the experiences of people with cognitive difficulties. If such difficulties are a part of your life, or if you help care for somebody who has these difficulties, these researchers need your technology stories.

You can share your thoughts at their Facebook page, www.facebook/CognitiveAccessibility. Or, email comments to TechIdeas@beneficialdesigns.com, and your email will be reposted anonymously on the Cognitive Accessibility Facebook page.

You can also join the RESNA Standards Committee. For more information about that commitment, contact Seanna Kringen, seanna@beneficialdesigns.com.