Thanks for taking the time to respond. You've managed to come up with suggestions that would result in the first iteration of the software I came up with.

The results of the focus testing we did (mostly with a group of autistic adults) ended up resulting in most of the peculiarities you described.

Incidentally, if anyone has any experience doing design work for disabled individuals, I'd love to hear your design processes. This project had a decidedly "too many cooks in the kitchen" sort of feel to it, and though I think it turned out pretty well I think the process could have gone smoother.