Consider adding a persona for mental health

[kimviens]

Hi!

In the document, mental health is mentioned a few times but I was wondering if it would benefit from a persona to represent mental health. Mental health can greatly shape how you experience and use technology. There is a lot of intersectionality with disability and mental health as people with disabilities have reported to experience more mental health challenges than people without disabilities.

I see that the personas have aspects of mental health, but I would like to know if one persona of a persistent mental health challenge would be useful (my apologies I don't know how to word this better).

I think the easiest persona to implement would be for generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder. They could need:

• Search. When a list of items become too big, a search functionality should be given or items split into smaller sections. First character navigation might not be enough if its a big amount of items.
• Search. Can benefit from being able to activate functionalities through a search field.
• Focus. Give the ability to focus on one goal at a time. Try to ensure that sections of the UI perform one goal.
• Things that go together are together. Group functionalities and content when it makes sense, do not have a scattered user interface.
• Images and videos help (as long as they are WCAG compliant). Especially to explain complex topics.

The list above are just things that I thought of on the top of my head. Here are a couple of links about the topic:

• A web of anxiety: accessibility for people with anxiety and panic disorders [Part 1]
• A web of anxiety: accessibility for people with anxiety and panic disorders [Part 2]
• How to Improve Digital Accessibility for People with Anxiety

Not including a persona for mental health could be excluding. Some people live with mental health challenges for life. It impacts their everyday. It impacts how they work. It impacts their relationships and it impacts how they use technology.