E-mail List Archives

Search E-mail List Archives for

Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)

From: Moore,Michael (Accessibility) (HHSC)
Date: Thu, Feb 04 2016 7:56AM
Subject: Accessibility of data visualizations
No previous message | Next message →

Great point Angela,

When graphs and charts get to the point where the complexity makes them difficult for anyone to understand I often ask the person who created the chart what information they are attempting to convey. All too frequently I am met with a blank stare. "My boss told me to present the data in a graph." I find the graphs to be much more understandable when they depict only one or two relationships at a time, beyond that my head hurts. Breaking things down into a series of simpler tables and graphs usually makes it easier to see and understand the relationships. Of course, sometimes you might just want to hide them :)

Mike Moore
Accessibility Coordinator
Texas Health and Human Services Commission
Civil Rights Office
(512) 438-3431 (Office)

From: Don Mauck
Date: Thu, Feb 04 2016 8:34AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of data visualizations
← Previous message | Next message →

It gets even more complicated when they try to convert them into Pivot Tables.

From: Cliff Tyllick
Date: Thu, Feb 04 2016 8:44AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of data visualizations
← Previous message | Next message →

Mike, too often the person who is writing the report is not empowered to interpret the data—just present it. Although anyone else might conclude that the numbers say "Keep this as it is," the person or group commissioning the report might be making an argument for change—usually for the change that is to their own benefit.

Or vice versa. "Sea levels will rise 15 centimeters per decade due to climate change over the next 150 years" might be what the table or graph shows, but if the organization rejects the concept of climate change, that is not likely to be the alt text.

"Change in sea level predicted by climate modeling" would deprive people who get only the alt text of key information. That's a good reason to promote the principle of "more than one way." In other words, at least link to a data table showing the same information.

Cliff Tyllick
Accessibility Specialist
Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services


Sent from my iPhone
Although its spellcheck often saves me, all goofs in sent messages are its fault.

> On Feb 4, 2016, at 8:56 AM, Moore,Michael (Accessibility) (HHSC) < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> Great point Angela,
>
> When graphs and charts get to the point where the complexity makes them difficult for anyone to understand I often ask the person who created the chart what information they are attempting to convey. All too frequently I am met with a blank stare. "My boss told me to present the data in a graph." I find the graphs to be much more understandable when they depict only one or two relationships at a time, beyond that my head hurts. Breaking things down into a series of simpler tables and graphs usually makes it easier to see and understand the relationships. Of course, sometimes you might just want to hide them :)
>
> Mike Moore
> Accessibility Coordinator
> Texas Health and Human Services Commission
> Civil Rights Office
> (512) 438-3431 (Office)
>
>

From: Angela French
Date: Thu, Feb 04 2016 9:42AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of data visualizations
← Previous message | Next message →

The context of my original question is using readily available software/services that create the charts. For example, Google Charts. Is the output accessible? Here is an example: https://developers.google.com/chart/interactive/docs/quick_start

Angela French

From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Thu, Feb 04 2016 11:31AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of data visualizations
← Previous message | Next message →

> When graphs and charts get to the point where the complexity makes them difficult for anyone to understand I often ask the person who created the chart what information they are attempting to convey.

I'd recommend a multi-pronged approach.
1. Provide a way for the user to jump into the data and navigate through it and interrogate it.
2. Provide an alternative view such as a table, nest listed, etc.
3. Provide a summary of the information

In those ways the user doesn't have to figure out the summary with great pain that could have been quick to visually determine but they are not limited to a person's inadequate or bias summary of the information.

Jumping into a graph and moving around the graph with the keyboard and having keystrokes to ask about information and an relationships of points in the graph allows users an immersion experience that I believe is very important and isn't easily provided by a table or a summary.

Jonathan

Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
703.637.8957 (o)
Follow us: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Blog | Newsletter

From: Joshua Hori
Date: Thu, Feb 04 2016 12:53PM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of data visualizations
← Previous message | No next message

It's not accessible, no keyboard access. It's also not reading in the right order when using a screenreader and may take additional time to make sense of it.

It reads:

How much pizza I ate last night mushrooms onions olives zucchini pepperoni 37.5% 25% 12.5% 12.5 % 12.5% clickable.

Then when you tab it reads:

Topping slices mushrooms 3 onions 1 olives 1 zucchini 1 pepperoni 2 table end.

I like tip #8 on the following blog post, especially the tabbed interface example: http://www.sitepoint.com/tips-accessible-svg/

It's going to be interesting implementing accessibility into SVG's, especially when it involves workflows, swim lanes, and whatnot.

Best,

Joshua