Resource guide
Cognitive Accessibility Foundations
Start here to understand what COGA is, who it helps, and the eight design goals that matter most.
By Calling All Minds·Last updated April 2026
practical design goals
Drawn from the W3C COGA work.
not just one group
Neurodivergent, stressed, new users.
friendly, clear guidance
Written for real teams.
Welcome to the Foundations
Start here to understand what COGA is, who it helps, and the eight design goals that matter most.
Cognitive accessibility (COGA) is about making digital experiences easier to understand and easier to finish. This module covers the foundations: what COGA is, who benefits from it, and the core design goals that guide all the patterns you'll learn later.
Guide
What is COGA?
COGA is about making digital experiences easier to understand and easier to finish. Good cognitive accessibility reduces friction. It does not talk down to people. It simply removes unnecessary effort.
COGA is not only for one group
It supports neurodivergent users, people with brain injury, people living with memory issues, people under stress, and many others who find complex systems harder to use.
COGA is not an optional extra
If a service is legally available but practically impossible to complete, it is still failing people. Cognitive accessibility is part of good design and good service delivery.
Why this matters to us
We believe cognitive accessibility should be visible in the tools teams use every day. That is why we are bringing dedicated COGA analysis into AXS Audit through AXS Cognitive AI.
Guide
Who needs cognitive accessibility?
The short answer is more people than most teams expect. Cognitive accessibility supports a wide range of users, including people who may never describe themselves as disabled.
People with ADHD
They may need clearer structure, fewer distractions, visible priorities, and gentle reminders so tasks do not become chaotic or exhausting.
Autistic people
They may benefit from predictable layouts, consistent wording, clear next steps, and fewer surprise changes across a journey.
People with dyslexia
They may need plain language, strong headings, short paragraphs, helpful spacing, and support with reading and writing.
People with memory difficulties
They may need save and return features, progress markers, summaries, and less reliance on remembering what happened earlier.
People under stress or fatigue
Even strong readers struggle when they are tired, ill, anxious, or overloaded. Good cognitive accessibility helps them too.
People new to a system
First-time users, older users, and people using English as an additional language all benefit when content is simpler and more predictable.
Guide
The design goals that matter most
This guide uses eight practical goals inspired by the W3C COGA work. They are simple enough to remember and useful enough to apply on real projects.
- •Help people understand what something is and how to use it.
- •Help people find what they need without hunting around.
- •Use plain, direct language and avoid hidden meaning.
- •Help people avoid mistakes and recover from them calmly.
- •Reduce distractions and help people stay focused.
- •Do not rely on memory when the system can do the work.
- •Show what happens next so users are not left guessing.
- •Support personalisation when people need a different way in.
How this shows up in AXS Audit
We are building these principles into a dedicated COGA area inside AXS Audit. Powered by AXS Cognitive AI, this helps teams see where content clarity, focus support, memory load, error prevention, help and support, and related patterns may be creating friction across a digital journey.
Ready to learn the patterns?
Now that you understand the "why", let's explore the practical design patterns that make COGA work in real digital experiences.
Next: Design Patterns