Learning Disability Week

Led by Mencap, Learning Disability Week is a UK-wide annual campaign in the third week of June. It highlights the experiences of the 1.5 million people in the UK with a learning disability, and calls for a more inclusive society. The 2026 theme is ‘Do you see me?’

People with cognitive and learning disabilities have a wide range of access needs, and no single story captures them all. One of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative’s user stories describes Sophie, a basketball fan with Down syndrome. Sophie can find abstract concepts, jargon, acronyms, and long passages of dense text difficult, and is slowed down by venues where buying tickets jumps between sites with inconsistent layouts or links that unexpectedly open PDFs. The strategies that help her include plain language, shorter sentences, headings that break a page into smaller chunks, breadcrumbs, clear focus and link styling, and apps with fewer options and less clutter.

Websites that work well for people with similar access needs use plain language and explain or avoid acronyms and abbreviations, keep layout and navigation consistent from page to page, break content up with descriptive headings, warn users when a link will take them to a different site or file type, give clear feedback when forms have errors, and offer enough time (or a way to extend it) to complete tasks.