Mental health disabilities (sometimes called “psychosocial disabilities”) are often overlooked when people think about accessibility. In fact, WCAG2 does not reference the needs of people with mental health disabilities at all. According to Healthdirect Australia, the main groups of mental health disabilities are:
- mood disabilities (such as depression or bipolar disorder)
- anxiety disabilities
- personality disabilities
- psychotic disabilities (such as schizophrenia)
- eating disorders
- trauma-related disabilities (such as post-traumatic stress disorder)
- substance abuse disabilities
Australians with disabilities are significantly more likely to have a co-existing mental health disability. Thirty-six percent of people with a severe or profound disability reported mood disabilities, compared to 8.7% of non-disabled people. Forty-two percent of people with a severe or profound disability reported anxiety-related problems, compared to 12% of non-disabled people. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that mental health issues are considered when implementing accessibility solutions. In fact, just the reality that mental health disabilities are not considered a defined disability by the general population is a form of ableism and is a manifestation of discrimination.
There is little research into what can be done to improve the accessibility of content for people with mental health disabilities, however, there are some known techniques to improve the accessibility of your content for people with mental health disabilities:
- Providing trigger warnings prior to problematic content. Use the following trigger warnings:
- Homophobia, Transphobia, Aphobia, Bi-erasure, Mis-gendering
- Rape and other forms of sexual violence, Human trafficking, Forced marriage, Genital mutilation
- Nudity, Sexual themes, Depiction of pornography
- Child abuse, Incest, Grooming, Statutory rape, Cyber-bullying
- Emotional abuse, Verbal abuse, Gaslighting
- Violence, Death, Dying, Murder, Torture, Kidnapping, Mutilation, Mass death, Serial killings, War, Police brutality, Terrorism, Natural disasters
- Animal abuse, Animal death
- Racism, Slavery, Genocide, Racial slurs, Colonialism
- Self-harm, Suicide, Mental illness, Eating disorders, Gambling, Panic attacks, Depression, Anxiety
- Drug and alcohol use or abuse
- Pregnancy, Childbirth, Miscarriage, Abortion, Menstruation issues
- Sizeism, Fat-shaming
- Bodily waste, Blood
- Providing specific trigger warnings around Disability. Use of the following trigger warnings:
- Anti-disability
- Ableism or ableistic language
- Curing of disabilities or lifechanging Injury
- Disability used as Inspiration
- Do not require time limits for users interacting with problematic content. For example, if you require your users to fill out a detailed medical history form, do not add a time out function or a due date for the information. Users with mental health disabilities may only be able to interact with small amounts of content at any time.
- When conducting tests, allow for user preferences. For example, a user’s anxiety disorder may mean that they are unable to complete an online test if they are required to keep their camera on. There are alternative solutions, such as asking the user to share the screen or providing an individual proctor in these cases. Music has been found effective to reduce test anxiety, and some students may prefer to take their tests while listening to music. In these cases, it is important to listen to your users and find out what would assist them the most.
- ADHD and autism are highly correlated with mental health disabilities, so ensure accessibility for these users. In one study, 70% of people with autism had one co-morbid mental health disability and 41% had two or more mental health disabilities. Therefore, it is essential to ensure your content is accessible to people with these disabilities. Some ways you help these groups are discussed in the “Needs of people with cognitive disabilities” section.
I hope this is useful to you!
And I hope the next version of WCAG includes some of these requirements.