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Re: Tableau Analytics Software

for

From: Whitney Quesenbery
Date: Jul 26, 2013 7:28AM

If I were thinking about this page, I'd start by thinking about
communication, rather than going straight to technical accessibility
issues.

First, I'd want a summary of what the visualization is showing. Let's just
look at the top image, which shows a map of the world and data points for
the cell phones in use in each country. It's just data. It has also picked
5 countries to highlight, and has a table of the top 3 countries for the
year shown.

There's no reason why this summary data can't be in a simple table. I don't
mean exporting to Excel, but presenting it in text form on the same page.

There is also a form to set the year and region to display. That, of
course, should be accessible.

The data is not displayed as continuous change. You select the settings and
the visualization resets, so it's not possible to treat this visualization
like an animation.

I might also want to look more closely at the data, even if I could see the
visualization. For that, the ability to download the data in an editable
form (like a spreadsheet) would be useful. In this scenario, I'm treating
the visualization as a way to identify interesting data to look at in more
depth.

So, putting this together, several elements would make it possible to
provide the data in this map in a way that would let users make use of
different senses:

1. An accessible selection form to select the data range, and any other
manipulations, like removing countries from the list of data leaders.
(Basic accessibility)

2. The visualization image, with some alt text to identify what region and
year is displayed. (Good for visual access, allows nonvisual users to
identify the image and skip it)

3. The summary highlights in a table that is easy to locate both visually
and non-visually. (For nonvisual access and those who prefer numbers)

4. The ability to download or display the data in text form. (For all)

5. The data points on the visualization are active, so they should also be
discoverable in a link list or some other accessible interaction. (For
nonvisual and keyboard interaction)

6. The entire thing could have a title or introductory paragraph that
summarized the data in an algorithmic way. Like "In North America, the top
three countries were the United States, with 38.8 cellphone per 100 pop.,
Canada with 28.5, and Bermuda with 20.7" This is no more difficult than the
code to present it any other way. (For all)

A few carefully worded instructions and links at the top would also help.
Perhaps: View data as [image] [text].

I know I've glossed over a dozen or so difficulties in writing the code in
an accessible way. Just to reiterate, my point is that if we think about
how we make information and interaction appeal to all senses, it becomes a
more interesting design problem.






On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 11:27 AM, Angela French < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Data visualization is starting to be so prevalent. I'd like to see
> examples of what companies who present data this way are doing to make the
> data available by other means. Socrates allows exporting to Excel, but I
> can't imagine that that is a very satisfying experience.
>
> Angela French
>
>
> >When viewing this page with VoiceOver on the Mac it sounds something like
> >this: "Image, image, image, image, image..."
> >
> >You get the point.
> >
> >The company advertises that this is a tool for the visualization of data.
> I think
> >that sums it up about accessibility.
> >
> >~j
> >
> >John E. Brandt
> >jebswebs: accessible and universal design, development and consultation
> > <EMAIL REMOVED>
> >207-622-7937
> >Augusta, Maine, USA
> >
> >@jebswebs
> >
> >