{"ID":2840130,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.14636","arxiv_id":"2511.14636","title":"Theoretical basis for code presentation: A case for cognitive load","abstract":"Evidence supports that reducing cognitive load (CL) improves task performance for people of all abilities. This effect is specifically important for blind-and-low-vision (BLV) individuals because they cannot rely on many common methods of managing CL, which are frequently vision-based techniques. Current accessible \"solutions\" for BLV developers only sporadically consider CL in their design. There isn't a way to know whether CL is being alleviated by them. Neither do we know if alleviating CL is part of the mechanism behind why these solutions help BLV people. Using a strong foundation in psychological sciences, we identify aspects of CL that impact performance and learning in programming. These aspects are then examined when evaluating existing solutions for programming sub-tasks for BLV users. We propose an initial design \"recommendations\" for presentation of code which, when followed, will reduce cognitive load for BLV developers.","short_abstract":"Evidence supports that reducing cognitive load (CL) improves task performance for people of all abilities. This effect is specifically important for blind-and-low-vision (BLV) individuals because they cannot rely on many common methods of managing CL, which are frequently vision-based techniques. Current accessible \"so...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.14636","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2511.14636v1","authors":"[\"Nyah Speicher\",\"Prashant Chandrasekar\"]","published":"2025-11-18T16:28:45Z","proceeding":"cs.HC","tasks":"[\"cs.HC\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}