Fable Learning Centre
This toolkit will help you make the most of cognitive accessibility research with Fable Engage.
How cognitive accessibility shapes real user experiences
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:
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 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:
Challenges with recalling information, navigating multi-step tasks, or remembering pathways.
Difficulties understanding dense content, interpreting unfamiliar terminology, or completing written communication.
Challenges maintaining attention, filtering distractions, or working with visually or auditorily busy interfaces.
This audience may also use accommodations like:
It’s worth noting that these needs overlap strongly with those of aging populations, which amplifies the importance of cognitive accessibility in design.
Want to learn more about accessibility? Fable Upskill has an extensive course catalog with courses covering all of the accommodation types Fable offers, including cognitive accessibility.
These insights are patterns observed across Fable’s cognitive audience and learnings from our customers.
Users consistently tell us that abstract or hypothetical prompts create confusion. Direct, concrete wording leads to smoother interactions.
Animations, pop-ups, and visually dense layouts make it harder to stay oriented, often leading to abandonment.
When essential information disappears between steps, users struggle to remember what they were doing. High memory load increases friction.
Many prefer to complete a task fully before sharing their thoughts. Thinking aloud is not a universal behaviour.
Predictable layouts, clear hierarchies, and repeated patterns help users stay grounded and reduce uncertainty.
“The cognitive audience was a great addition to the other accommodations we test with Fable today. Insights on access needs for focus, reading, and writing really help us improve UX for everyone and propel us toward our vision – not just accessible design, but inclusive design.”
Jared Becker
Digital Product Lead, Accessibility at Nestle Purina
How to consider cognitive needs in your research and testing
Conduct cognitive testing when your flow includes:
Generally speaking, if a task requires attention, interpretation, or memory, insights from the cognitive audience will be highly valuable.
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:
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.
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.
| 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.
Practical steps you can take to start collecting insights today
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:
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.
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.
Save the majority of your questions for after tasks. Interruptions can increase cognitive load.
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.
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.
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.
| 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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
If you have questions or require platform support, email support@makeitfable.com.