Critical Incident Questionnaire

A short, open-ended reflective tool developed by Stephen Brookfield for teaching and learning contexts, typically consisting of five questions asking participants to recall moments from a recent experience that were most engaging, surprising, confusing, distancing, or affirming. The CIQ has been adopted in HCI, design, and accessibility research as a low-burden way to elicit qualitative reflection on a workshop, study session, or intervention. For accessibility research with neurodivergent or cognitively disabled participants, the CIQ's brevity, open-ended format, and focus on specific moments (rather than generalised summaries) can reduce the overthinking and interpretation burden seen in longer questionnaire instruments.