Cognitive Accessibility (ADHD · autism · dyslexia · neurodivergence)

a11y-pass covers mechanical WCAG defects. This pass asks whether someone can read, understand, remember, and finish without avoidable cognitive cost. Profiles are friction lenses, never diagnoses or universal rules.

Non-negotiables (help every profile)

• Plain and structured: literal, front-loaded language; short chunks; summaries, visible steps, and progress for long work.
• Predictable and low-memory: consistent labels/help; no surprise changes; carry forward information instead of requiring recall.
• Calm and readable: controllable motion, no sensory overload, readable ragged-left type (about 1.5 line-height and 45–75ch), and no justified/all-caps blocks.
• Forgiving: explain fixes, preserve work, allow pause/extension, and confirm or undo destructive actions.

Profile lenses

Use references/profiles.md. ADHD highlights distraction, progress, and save/resume; autism predictability and sensory control; dyslexia reading support and alternatives to text-only cues. Apply shared rules to every user, including kind, non-judgmental recovery.

Use this skill

Map friction before profiles

Trace one real task through interruption/error and recovery. Record observed friction and demand, a non-diagnostic profile hypothesis, repair, and task-path proof that start, correction, or resume became easier. Make purpose/next action skimmable; externalize memory/progress; preserve work/time control; offer motion, density, and reading support without changing meaning.

Reference files

• references/profiles.md — profile-specific barriers and repairs.
• references/patterns.md — checkable cross-cutting patterns/examples.
• references/decision-records.md — meta-patterns + ADR rules for novel cases.

Self-check (before claiming cognitively accessible)

• Plain, chunked, predictable, low-memory content with one clear next action?
• Calm, controllable sensory/readability conditions and kind, recoverable errors?
• Real path separates observed friction from hypothesis and proves start, recovery, or resume?

How to deliver

Name profiles and concrete moves. This is the cognitive layer; hand technical/WCAG defects to a11y-pass.

Provenance — principle, not property

Grounded in the W3C Cognitive and Learning Disabilities Accessibility Task Force (COGA) "Making Content Usable for People with Cognitive and Learning Disabilities" and established neurodivergent-design practice. Independent synthesis, credited — not copied.

Contract (generated)

Canonical detail: contract.json.

• Route: A flow imposes avoidable memory, attention, predictability, reading, or recovery load for ADHD, autistic, dyslexic, or other neurodivergent users.; avoid: The issue is only color contrast, semantic markup, or translation expansion.
• Exclude: Do not flatten personality or remove useful complexity without evidence. (+1 in contract.json)
• Stop / handoff: Stop when the task context or observed friction is unknown. (+1 in contract.json); receives [improve-existing-website, form-ux, empty-states, theming] -> sends [a11y-pass, humanize-copy, tastecheck-pass]
• Output: prioritized cognitive repair ledger preserving product voice
• Evidence: table_with_evidence with status, reason, remediation, evidence, provenance.