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Re: Ways to make graphs accessible

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From: Date: Jan 24, 2018 2:55AM

Léonie makes great points, and we have taken her advice when it comes to making SVG charts accessible.

Take a look at http://www.highcharts.com for more information on our charts in particular.

Making data visualizations accessible is not an easy task, and I think it is important not to get locked in a single track. Much of the accessibility comes from the design of the chart. Are the colors of adequate contrast and understandable by people with varying forms of color blindness? Are the fonts readable? Are you using difficult language? In addition to design, we can provide tools to better understand the chart, particularly for screen reader users. This of course includes a text description of the chart, and what the chart is meant to convey - similar to an alt-text for an image. It also includes making the chart data available in table format, and making the SVG itself explorable by a screen reader. We are also experimenting with modalities such as sonification, to better provide an overview of the data.

The advantages of using SVG are several. Firstly, you can create dynamic and interactive charts for your sighted users. Interactive functionality such as drill down can even improve the cognitive accessibility aspects of the chart, and e.g. dynamic zooming functionality can make a chart much easier to understand. Secondly, you can make the SVG itself accessible to screen reader and keyboard-only users.

Best regards,
Øystein Moseng
Core Developer
Highsoft AS
@oysteinmoseng

> On 24 Jan 2018, at 09:48, Vemaarapu Venkatesh < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> Thank you very much Léonie for this great article. Is it recommendable to
> make charts accessible using SVG and how far this technique is compatible
> with various browsers and screen readers. Can we say the conventional
> methods like accompanying the description along with the image in the same
> page, providing a link to description next to the image etc. are better in
> terms of understandability and implementation over using SVG.
> I am trying to understand the challenges and no doubt the article is an
> amazing one to learn the technique.
>
> Thanks,
> Venkatesh
> > > >