Individuals with Cognitive Disabilities: Barriers to and Solutions for Accessible Information and Communication Technologies

This White Paper discusses the need for access to information and communications technologies by people with cognitive disabilities, and what that access entails. It highlights the importance of ICT, and the particular benefits that these technologies can afford individuals with cognitive disabilities. The part that follows identifies the following three reasons that people with cognitive disabilities have not adopted ICT at the same rate as Americans without disabilities: (1) the failure of many technologies to be accessible to people with cognitive disabilities; (2) the lack of effective outreach to people with cognitive disabilities about the availability of accessible features and practical uses of those features, which has led to misconceptions about ICT’s relevance to this population; and (3) the tendency of people with cognitive disabilities to have lower incomes and therefore be less able to afford certain technology.

With this White Paper, the FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau recommends several solutions and adaptive tools to address each of these barriers to access and adoption. The paper concludes by clarifying the legal bases underlying the rights to ICT access by people with cognitive disabilities.