Attention and focus assistive technology
On this guide page
Canceling Auto-play
When things move on the screen, they can cause distractions. Distractions can make digital content hard to understand. Distractions can also prevent the completion of tasks promptly. These options help turn off audio, video, notifications, or messages that play or scroll automatically.
- Use animations (e.g., GIF images) that can be paused or played once.
- Look for pause or stop buttons on digital content (e.g., audio player, video player) within application or device settings.
- Look for options that can stop the scrolling on the screen (e.g., chat room).
Note: If you are creating or maintaining digital content, set the auto-play to off by default. That allows people to choose how they want to view the content. It also prevents surprises like audio playing in the middle of nowhere and trying to find the pause button.
Reduce Motion
Parallax and other motions can be both distracting and nauseating. Some application and device settings include a "reduce motion" option.
Line Focus
"Busy" pages have a lot of content around to grab your attention. There could be ads. There could be animations. There could be sliding content. This can be distracting.
Yet, we need to read the main content on the page. Some applications allow you to pull the main content into another view to read. Some applications also allow you to focus on a set number of lines or words.
Note: Help people who need to read your content. Divide it into smaller chunks.
See where you can turn long sentences into short sentences. See where you can create lists.
Add headings to help people quickly create relationships with the content. Headings also help them skip to what they need to review.
Ad Blockers
Ads are regularly invasive and distracting because of their animations, colors, or pop-ups. You can install applications that block suspected ads from displaying on the screen. They will help you focus on the main content.
Warning: Two issues may occur with ad blockers:
- Some media companies maintain their websites free for you if they can display ads. If you are reading a news article, the website may ask you to turn the ad blocker off to view their articles.
- Some sliding content and animations may be suspected as ads. Ad blockers may block this type of content. Web maintainers should avoid this type of content if they want to improve participation.
Focus Music
Music may be able to focus your thoughts. Different music helps different people with different tasks. There are applications that provide common focus music themes. Some applications also help with calming you or helping you come to a focused mindset.
Focus Time ("Do Not Disturb")
Many devices and applications now have settings to help you focus during specific times. They reduce the notifications you receive, so you are less distracted. For example, you may be able to set up a work and personal focus time. During work focus time, personal calls or applications are silenced. During personal focus time, work calls may go to voicemail, and you may not receive work emails.
Note: "Very important people" (VIPs) can be set to disrupt you during your focus times. Think carefully about who is a VIP that can override your focus time. Adding people to the VIP list who send regular notifications and messages can prevent you from focusing on tasks.