Cognitive accessibility engagement guide

This is a guide to facilitating online user interviews with participants who experience cognitive barriers. Remember that people experience barriers on a spectrum and that this guide is not exhaustive. Many of the following suggestions and considerations for researchers working with participants with cognitive barriers can be applied to any research session.

How to get started:

  • Run 2-3 informational user interviews to get familiar with cognitive needs and challenges
  • Add cognitive Accessibility Usability Scale (AUS) scores to your existing product benchmarks by repeating the same test protocol with 2-3 cognitive participants
  • Run a usability study to explore navigation, content, icons and images, and layout with 2-3 cognitive participants

Best practices

  • Use short, direct instructions

  • Break tasks into small, easy-to-follow steps

  • Give users time to complete each task before asking for feedback

  • Share reminders and prompts throughout the session

  • Confirm when enough feedback is gathered

What to avoid

  • Jargon or complex wording

  • Vague or hypothetical questions and scenarios

  • Rushing through tasks or switching topics too quickly

  • Multitasking—it increases cognitive load

  • Assuming more feedback is always better—quality over quantity!

Before your session

  • Include warning of sensitive subjects in your research request description.
  • Plan for a maximum of 2 topics or tasks per session.
  • Prepare to screen share and show participants, not just tell or instruct them.
  • Consider if you want a second researcher to focus on how the participant is feeling and responding. This could distract the participant or make them nervous to share freely.

In your discussion guide

  • Give clear and specific instructions. Avoid vague and hypothetical scenarios.
  • Provide an estimate for time-bound tasks, but don’t rely on participants remembering the time frame.
  • Give reminders and prompts when it’s time to wrap up.
  • Let them know when they’ve given enough feedback.
  • Consider whether you’ll let participants go off-topic or bring them back on task.

During your session

  • Ensure participants understand their rights regarding what they choose to share.
  • If a participant is struggling, remind them that they don’t have to answer every question. They can stop and withdraw consent at any time.
  • Introduce yourself and get to know one another, including checking on their accommodation requirements.
  • Explain the purpose of the session, review provided materials and confirm their understanding.
  • Use well-timed probing questions vs. expecting them to narrate aloud.
  • Include reminders throughout and save questions until after a task is completed.
  • Be aware of the higher risk of these participants experiencing stress, anxiety, disorientation and unpleasant emotions. Consider offering a break or gently guide them to a simpler task or question if this happens. Encourage them to reach out to Fable’s Community Team (community@makeitfable.com) for support.

Discussion guide template: Informational interview

Overview

  • Researcher: (your name)
  • Research goals:

Introductions (10 minutes)

Introduce yourself and the goals of the session (learning about the participant’s cognitive needs and preferences for digital experiences).

Optional ice breaker questions

  • “Tell me a little about your day so far.”
  • “Do you remember the first piece of technology you ever used or were excited about?”

Tell me a bit about yourself

  • “Can you tell me what operating system you’re using today?”
  • “Are you using any assistive technology (like magnification) or accessibility settings (like increased font size)?”
  • “Are there tools, settings, or features that really help you stay focused or reduce stress?”
  • “Before we dive in, is there anything that would make this session easier or more comfortable for you?”

Set up and cognitive questions (15 minutes)

Consent

“In this session, you may:

  • Let me know if you don’t want to answer a question
  • Ask questions at any time
  • Stop at any time”

Cognitive questions

  • “Do you have any questions before we begin?”
  • “What does a typical day look like for you?”
  • “What kinds of tools, apps, or supports do you use most often?”
  • “Are there times of day or certain tasks that feel harder to manage or stay focused on?”
  • “What types of tasks feel mentally tiring or overwhelming?”
  • “Do you use any strategies to help with remembering things or staying organized?”
  • “Are there things that make it harder to understand or use written information or instructions?”

Technology preferences (15 minutes)

Ask about preferences for different devices, including mobile vs. desktop.

  • “Do you use different devices for different tasks?”
  • “Is there a particular browser that works best for you?”
  • “If you’re on a website or an app and you run into challenges, what do you do?”
  • “What is a good experience for requesting support online, if you need it?”

Technology experiences (10 minutes)

  • “Can you tell me about some of the challenges or pain points you generally might have while navigating online?”
  • “What makes a good experience for you?”
  • “Can you tell me about a website or app that you use often that works really well for you? What makes it a good experience?”

Wrap up (10 minutes)

  • “Is there anything else you want to share that we haven’t covered?”
  • “What’s one thing you wish designers or developers better understood about your experience?”
  • “Thank you. We’ll take everything you shared today and use it to [improve the design, educate our team, etc.]. You’ve really helped us understand things from your perspective.”

Discussion guide template: Evaluative usability

Overview

  • Researcher: (your name)
  • Active session time: 30 minutes

Research goals

  • Task 1:
  • Task 2:

Product access

  • URL:
  • Username:
  • Password:
  • Special instructions:

Introductions (10 minutes)

Introduce yourself and the goals of the session (or overview of product/tasks).

Optional ice breaker questions

  • “Tell me a little about your day so far.”
  • “Do you remember the first piece of technology you ever used or were excited about?”

Tell me a bit about yourself

  • “Can you tell me what operating system you’re using today?”
  • “Are you using any assistive technology (like magnification) or accessibility settings (like increased font size)?”
  • “Are there tools, settings, or features that really help you stay focused or reduce stress?”
  • “Before we dive in, is there anything that would make this session easier or more comfortable for you?”

Set up (5 minutes)

Consent

“In this session, you may:

  • Let me know if you don’t want to answer a question
  • Ask questions at any time
  • Stop at any time

I’ll give you instructions for a task, you may share your feedback as you go through the task, if you’d like. I may ask you a few questions about your experience after you’ve attempted to go through the task.

Please keep in mind that we are evaluating our site! We are not testing you. Please just give us your honest feedback so we can make this experience better.

Do you have any questions before we begin?”

Task 1 (15 minutes)

  • Goals:
  • Activities:

Task 2 (15 minutes)

  • Goals:
  • Activities:

Wrap up (15 minutes)

  • “Thanks so much for taking the time to walk through everything with me today. Your feedback was super helpful.”
  • “Just to quickly recap, we explored [X tasks/features], and I really appreciated your thoughts on [mention something specific they brought up—e.g., ‘how the navigation labels felt confusing’ or ‘that shortcut you expected to work’].”
  • “Before we finish, is there anything else you’d like to add? Anything we didn’t cover or that came to mind along the way?”
  • “We’ll take everything you shared today and use it to [improve the design, prioritize changes, etc.]. You’ve really helped us understand things from your perspective.”

Log out and survey

Guide the user to log out (if applicable).

“Thanks again—we really appreciate your time and insight. I hope the rest of your day goes well!”