Barriers to creating value with cognitive accessibility features in digital services

Abstract Digital services should be designed so that as many people as possible can use them. Designing digital services to be cognitively accessible brings value to the user if the user can use the digital service and understands its content. The benefits of cognitive accessibility, e.g., better customer experience or better usability in digital services, have been studied from the perspective of both users and organisations. Despite the benefits, there can be barriers to designing and implementing usable and understandable digital services. This paper aims to identify service providers’ perceptions of barriers to designing cognitively accessible digital services. When the barriers are understood, entrepreneurs can be supported to design digital services that generate value for customers. To better understand the barriers, qualitative research with semi-structured in-depth interviews was conducted with Finnish entrepreneurs. The results revealed different kinds of barriers to designing and implementing cognitively accessible digital services.