Websites for People with Learning Difficulties

In partnership with Easy Read Online we are now producing Websites for people with learning disabilities. This involves using video to read out the content of the page and symbols to assist with navigation.

Below is a screenshot of a site we developed for Promote the Vote :

As you can see the text links are backed up by symbols. Within some local authorities use of these symbols is quite widespread so they can be more easily recognised. However it's not as simple as this because in some authorities they are not used so widely and photo symbols might be more useful..

Videos for people with learning difficulties

One element which we have found useful in websites for disabled users is the use of video to explain the page content. The screenshot below shows a typical talking head reading out the content of a page:

Unlike some other Websites, the 'talking head' is reading out the actual content of the page.

Navigation buttons for people with learning difficulties

People with learning difficulties often don't have the same degree of mouse control due to lack of practice or perhaps some accompanying disability so we use large clear buttons that are clearly links to another page:

Text resizing for people with learning difficulties

Often people with learning difficulties may not be using their own computer, for instance in a centre, and so it will not be set up and personalised for them with larger than normal text for example. It is simply too much to expect them to be able to use the buttons on a browser so to make it easier we include large clear buttons on the page:

Colour schemes for people with learning difficulties

There is a much higher incidence of other disabilities amongst people with learning difficulties. It may be that the cause of the learning disability has also caused other disabilities. On of these is Dyslexia. For this reason we have a simple toolbar to change the colour scheme:

Plain English with pictures

Everyone, in fact, likes plain English with pictures. We support simple text with pictures:

If you would like us to come and visit and talk to you about our services give us a call on 0151 223 0001 or use the contact form below: