Fable Learning Centre
Cognitive accessibility toolkit
This toolkit will help you make the most of cognitive accessibility research with Fable Engage.
Learn
How cognitive accessibility shapes real user experiences
What is cognitive accessibility?
Cognitive disabilities are among the most common disability types, with global estimates that 15–20% of the population have some form of cognitive access need. Cognitive accessibility is about ensuring that digital products are easy to understand, remember, and use.
Cognitive barriers often arise when product experiences include:
- Dense information
- Unpredictable flows
- High memory load
- Visually or auditorily noisy interfaces
These barriers disproportionately affect people with learning disabilities, ADHD, dyslexia, age-related cognitive changes, acquired cognitive conditions, and anyone who may be distracted, tired, or dealing with stress.
When you design for cognitive accessibility, you reduce friction for everyone. Interfaces become clearer, faster to use, and more intuitive, which directly improves conversion, satisfaction, and retention.
Fable’s Community of cognitive testers
Fable uses a needs-based approach, rather than aligning to medical diagnoses. Community members in the cognitive audience self-identify with needing support with one or more of the following:
Memory
Challenges with recalling information, navigating multi-step tasks, or remembering pathways.
Learning
Difficulties understanding dense content, interpreting unfamiliar terminology, or completing written communication.
Focus
Challenges maintaining attention, filtering distractions, or working with visually or auditorily busy interfaces.
This audience may also use accommodations like:
- Assistive technologies (screen readers, magnifiers)
- Accessibility settings (captions, text-to-speech, larger fonts, dark mode)
- Cognitive support tools (reminders, timers, note-taking apps, calendars)
It’s worth noting that these needs overlap strongly with those of aging populations, which amplifies the importance of cognitive accessibility in design.
Key insights
These insights are patterns observed across Fable’s cognitive audience and learnings from our customers.
Clear, literal instructions support task success
Users consistently tell us that abstract or hypothetical prompts create confusion. Direct, concrete wording leads to smoother interactions.
Distractions disrupt focus
Animations, pop-ups, and visually dense layouts make it harder to stay oriented, often leading to abandonment.
Visible information reduces cognitive effort
When essential information disappears between steps, users struggle to remember what they were doing. High memory load increases friction.
Silent task completion is common
Many prefer to complete a task fully before sharing their thoughts. Thinking aloud is not a universal behaviour.
Consistency builds confidence
Predictable layouts, clear hierarchies, and repeated patterns help users stay grounded and reduce uncertainty.
Plan
How to consider cognitive needs in your research and testing
When to conduct cognitive research and testing
Conduct cognitive testing when your flow includes:
- Multi-step tasks
- Form fields or complex instructions
- Navigation choices
- Onboarding or account setup
- Content-heavy pages
- Decision-making or comparison tasks
- Help centers or educational content
- Dynamic or movement-based content
Generally speaking, if a task requires attention, interpretation, or memory, insights from the cognitive audience will be highly valuable.
Selecting the right research method
With User Interviews, you can incorporate cognitive insights into your generative or evaluative research studies.
If you are focused on evaluative research, Fable provides a version of the Accessible Usability Scale (AUS) tailored to cognitive needs. Fable’s AUS measures:
- Clarity of content and instructions
- Ease of staying focused
- How quickly users learn the experience
- Ability to move through tasks confidently
- Overall cognitive effort required
When you select an AUS survey, it will be automatically delivered to the tester after your interview. You will receive the results directly on the platform once they’ve completed it. This helps you create a standardized measurement of usability across key product areas, helping you track improvements over time.
Choosing the right accommodation type
Just as assistive technology users rely on different tools depending on the task, people with cognitive accessibility needs can use a variety of support based on what the moment demands. These needs often overlap.
For example, someone with focus-related needs may become distracted and, as a result, struggle with working memory. In this case, support for both focus and memory may be helpful.
When a study aims to explore a wide range of cognitive needs, you’ll want to keep your audience selection intentionally broad.
In other cases, your research goals may align more closely with specific accommodation types. When that happens, it can be valuable to select participants based on what is most relevant to your goals.
Which cognitive accessibility accommodation types to engage based on research goals
| Research goal | Focus | Memory | Reading and writing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Information architecture and navigation | High value | High value | Moderate value |
| Interaction design | High value | High value | Moderate value |
| Visual design | High value | Moderate value | Moderate value |
| Content design | High value | High value | High value |
| Overall usability | High value | High value | High value |
No matter which area you prioritize, cognitive research consistently reveals high-quality insights. Most studies benefit from a blend of all support types, giving teams a well-rounded understanding of where users thrive and where they struggle.
Do
Practical steps you can take to start collecting insights today
Prepare for your study
Effective cognitive research begins with thoughtful preparation. Planning ahead ensures that interviews are clear, comfortable, and supportive for participants with diverse cognitive needs. Consider the following as you design your study:
Design a flexible structure
Plan for different engagement styles by building in additional time for processing thoughts, alternative ways of asking questions, and optional support (such as sharing prompts in chat). Flexibility allows participants to engage in the way that works best for them.
Prepare simple, precise tasks and prompts
Write tasks as clear, actionable steps and avoid jargon or hypothetical prompts that require interpretation. Well-structured tasks reduce cognitive load and help focus on the experience rather than deciphering instructions. If you have a step with multiple parts, break this into subtasks that you deliver one at a time.
Let participants focus on the task first
Save the majority of your questions for after tasks. Interruptions can increase cognitive load.
Reduce distractions ahead of time
Before your interview, turn off unnecessary alerts and avoid visual clutter if you are sharing your screen. Be mindful of any potential distractions in your environment, including lighting.
Understand preferences
Participants may use personal tools or strategies, such as captions, note-taking tools, and timers. Asking at the outset helps create awareness and understanding, as well as build rapport.
Turn cognitive insights into action
Insights from cognitive testers reveal powerful opportunities for better design. The examples below illustrate the kinds of insights you can expect, and how to translate them into impactful, user-centered decisions.
Cognitive accessibility insights, applications, and impact
| Insight | Application | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Users struggle when content is dense or ambiguous. | Simplify wording, strengthen headings, and clarify key actions. | Users understand what to do more quickly, reducing hesitation and errors. |
| Visual noise pulls users off-task. | Remove unnecessary motion, alerts, or competing elements. | Users stay focused longer, increasing completion rates. |
| Users experience friction when key information disappears between steps. | Keep essential instructions, selections, or summaries visible throughout the flow. | Reduces memory load and helps users remain confident as they progress. |
| Users rely on predictable structure to stay oriented. | Maintain consistent placement of navigation, controls, and progress indicators. | Users build mental models faster, leading to smoother, more reliable interactions. |
| Users process information differently and often depend on multiple cues. | Provide options such as captions, diagrams, transcripts, or simplified summaries. | Supports diverse cognitive styles and increases overall comprehension. |
Your team will undoubtedly discover additional insights as you begin this work, and sharing those findings broadly across product, design, and engineering is essential to ensuring improvements scale across your entire product experience.
Frequently asked questions to reduce uncertainty
I already have a discussion guide created for a gen-pop study. Do I need to significantly adapt it for the cognitive audience?
Most guides will only need minor adjustments like clearer wording, fewer tasks, and planning for more space for reflection. Because cognitive participants often offer deeper insights per task, simplifying the flow will lead to stronger results.
In your discussion guide, it’s most important to ensure you are only conveying a single question or idea per prompt, and that you are prepared to reword your prompt on the spot if there is any confusion.
How do I respectfully build rapport and ask testers about their accommodation needs?
To start, create a welcoming environment by mirroring your participants energy. Many testers will use a mix of tools and strategies to support them, and asking about these needs upfront shows respect and sets the stage for a productive session. You can ask:
- “Can you describe any access needs you have when using websites or mobile apps?”
- “Do you use any accessibility tools, settings, or personal strategies that would help you during today’s session?”
Keep questions simple and direct, and allow time for participants to reflect. This early rapport-building also helps clarify expectations, reduces anxiety, and ensures everyone has what they need before the session begins.
How many participants should I include in a cognitive study?
Cognitive research tends to yield deeper insights per participant, so smaller sample sizes are often sufficient. Even a few interviews can surface patterns around focus, cognitive load and navigation. Studies with 3–6 participants typically provide strong directional insights, and adding more participants is helpful when you’re exploring variability across different cognitive support needs.
What should I expect from cognitive insights compared to gen-pop usability findings?
Cognitive research often highlights foundational issues like clarity, predictability, hierarchy, and friction points that affect all users but become visible sooner with the cognitive audience. These insights can uncover blockers earlier in the design process, reduce rework, and strengthen overall usability, even when the study wasn’t explicitly focused on accessibility.
Ready to get started? Here’s how:
If you have questions or require platform support, email support@makeitfable.com.