Megan (not her real name) had always taken pride in her ability to meet someone once and remember their name. Then came a breast cancer diagnosis in her 40s, chemotherapy, and the brain fog that followed. She struggled to focus. She couldn’t remember names, or where she placed her keys or phone. Long, wordy instructions were a nightmare.

More than two decades after her diagnosis, Megan still labors with memory issues. She says the inability to remember names seems “abnormal,” and she feels as if she is “somehow lesser.”

Megan is one of more than 18 million cancer survivors in the United States. Her experience has a name: chemo brain, a cognitive impairment related to chemotherapy that affects memory, focus and finding words. Approximately 70% of U.S. cancer survivors report long-term functional limitations related to cancers or their treatments, nearly twice the percentage of the general population reporting limitations.

Cancer survivors’ limitations include cognitive challenges not associated with chemo brain. The list of impairments is long, and some can persist for years. One study found that more than 60% of breast cancer survivors who had chemo, radiation, hormone treatment and/or surgery continued to experience dysfunctions six years after diagnosis.

We are computer scientists who study accessibility and human-computer interaction. While complications can affect many dimensions of a cancer survivor’s life, we have found that one of them........

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