WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: How does blind users access graphical information ascharts (flowcharts, organisation chart)

for

From: smithj7
Date: Sep 10, 2007 3:00AM

Good question! In Florida, we celebrate vision awareness month and our
kick off is for people who are blind to describe how they do their jobs
using technology. I forgot completely about scheduling some staff to
tell how they access this type of information.

Also, I believe you are talking about braille readers verses "blind" in
general. (I have friends who are blind who use large print or CCTVS to
access graphics.)

Here's a bit of information to get you started.

I work closely with four speech readers who require statewide data. Two
prefer getting hard data for charts or graphs using an excell spread
sheet and two want a description using word.

For maps and building layouts we still have requests for tactile maps.
We are blessed with a tactile embosser (makes graphics in tactitle
format) and people that know how to use it. This is not always the
case. But such can be made by organizations like American Printing
House.

Workflow layout, if made in something like Viseo, just needs to be
redone using alternative text. When org charts are made in an
electronic formate, even if accessible, we always get requests for
alternative descriptions.

Here is an article that can give you more info on tactitle layouts.
http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=44&;TopicID=192&SubTopicID=75&Do
cumentID=3016

Hope this helped. Feel free to contact me at <EMAIL REMOVED>
if you would like to talk. About 20% of our staff has a visually
impairment. The four that work at the state office our managers and
must accesses data as part of their jobs. Use of tactitle charts is
often not a choice because of the turn around time, rather than user
preference. Deceisions often have to be made quickly.