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Number of posts in this thread: 18 (In chronological order)

From: Angela French
Date: Thu, May 19 2016 12:48PM
Subject: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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Hello,
Has anyone on this list ever evaluated the accessibility of the dashboards created using Tableau? Our state agency is beginning to use Tableau internally and want to start linking to, or embedding, these Tableau dashboards through our website. I have concerns about their accessibility.

For example, I did a very rudimentary review of this page<http://public.tableau.com/profile/technical.product.marketing#!/vizhome/Tale-of-100-Entrepreneurs_14/Taleof100Entrepreneurs>. All I want to see was whether those things on the page that look like headings, actually are headings. They are not.
They are just styled to look like headings. I don't know if this is a deficiency in the software or what.

I would be interested in hearing of the experience of users on this list.

Thank you,


Angela French
Internet/Intranet Specialist
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
360-704-4316
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = <mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
www.sbctc.edu<;http://www.sbctc.edu/>;

From: Thomas Lee McKeithan II
Date: Thu, May 19 2016 12:50PM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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We just looked at one of these reports and they are highly inaccessible. We'll be conducting a more comprehensive review of this application in the not to distant future.


Respectfully,
Thomas Lee McKeithan II | Optum Technology Solutions
Electronic Accessibility Engineer, UX Design Studio (UXDS)
MD018, 6220 Old Dobbin Lane, Columbia, MD, 21045, USA

T +1 443-896-0432
M +1 202-276-6437
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www.optum.com
 

From: Teresa Haven
Date: Thu, May 19 2016 12:54PM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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Hi, Angela. I was recently asked to check out Tableau for similar reasons; aside from checking the same general areas that you did, I also talked with their representative, who was very forthright about their current lack of accessibility. He says improvement to the output of the product is on their roadmap for this year, with longer-term plans for improvement of the authoring side, but he knows that right now it doesn't meet standards.

Hope this helps,

Teresa Haven, Ph.D.
Accessibility Analyst, Northern Arizona University

From: Ryan E. Benson
Date: Thu, May 19 2016 1:18PM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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We have talked to Tableau, and they have finally gotten on track in the
past 6-12 months. They have quarterly releases and we won't see any
improvement until the December 2016 release. I don't have the document
handy, but it will mainly address the Desktop and their output. I forget if
the output means the HTML interactive maps or if the PDF reports are
addressed as well.

My office has the ability to stop the use of products, so we have the
people give a business justification. If they say, or indirectly say, we
want to use Tableau because it is the new flashy tool, our answer is no at
this time.

--
Ryan E. Benson

On Thu, May 19, 2016 at 2:54 PM, Teresa Haven < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> Hi, Angela. I was recently asked to check out Tableau for similar
> reasons; aside from checking the same general areas that you did, I also
> talked with their representative, who was very forthright about their
> current lack of accessibility. He says improvement to the output of the
> product is on their roadmap for this year, with longer-term plans for
> improvement of the authoring side, but he knows that right now it doesn't
> meet standards.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Teresa Haven, Ph.D.
> Accessibility Analyst, Northern Arizona University
>
>
>
>

From: Angela French
Date: Thu, May 19 2016 3:00PM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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Has anyone ever heard of an accessible alternative to Tableau?

From: Teresa Haven
Date: Thu, May 19 2016 3:04PM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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We checked out several options at the same time we were evaluating Tableau and didn't find any all-in-one tools that offered any better accessibility at this time, although we could (with approximately 10x the time/labor) produce accessible output using multiple products that were also at least moderately accessible on the authoring side. If anyone knows of any good all-in-one tools, we'd love to hear about them so that we can put them into our review cycle.

Thanks,
Teresa

Teresa Haven, Ph.D.
Accessibility Analyst, Northern Arizona University

From: Moore,Michael (Accessibility) (HHSC)
Date: Mon, May 23 2016 10:44AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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No,

Tableau does not produce accessible output. We have also not been able to identify similar software that produces accessible output. We are requiring an alternative presentation of the information linked from the same location.

If anyone knows of an accessible data visualization tool I would really appreciate it if you would share that information with this list.

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

From: Joseph Sherman
Date: Mon, May 23 2016 11:06AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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OBIEE (A Guide to Accessible Content for Oracle Business Intelligence Suite<http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/accessibility/accessibility-guide-obiee-11g-1865005.pdf>;) has some accessibility features built in and allows for accessible output of tables and graphs. Generally I've seen mostly alternative presentation as the standard for data visualizations. Data Visualization and the Blind<https://www.perceptualedge.com/blog/?p56> discusses some of the issues for blind accessibility.





Joseph

From: Olaf Drümmer
Date: Mon, May 23 2016 11:16AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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Does anyone know of a conceptual approach that can accommodate accessibility for data visualization (beyond alternative text or alternate -= text based - presentation forms)?

> On 23.05.2016, at 18:44, Moore,Michael (Accessibility) (HHSC) < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> If anyone knows of an accessible data visualization tool I would really appreciate it if you would share that information with this list.

Olaf

From: Chaals McCathie Nevile
Date: Mon, May 23 2016 2:46PM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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On Mon, 23 May 2016 17:16:10 -0000, Olaf Drümmer < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
wrote:

> Does anyone know of a conceptual approach that can accommodate
> accessibility for data visualization (beyond alternative text or
> alternate -= text based - presentation forms)?

Yes. There is a lot that could be done with SVG. Although implementation
of accessibility features tends to be weak still, there are examples that
show a lot of potential.

Have a look at https://github.com/SVG-access-W3CG/use-case-examples for
some starting points. Incorporating a lot of what works into charting
libraries is not terribly complex despite being rare. Same for fixing a
lot of the simpler browser bugs.

cheers

>> On 23.05.2016, at 18:44, Moore,Michael (Accessibility) (HHSC)
>> < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>>
>> If anyone knows of an accessible data visualization tool I would really
>> appreciate it if you would share that information with this list.
>
> Olaf
> > > > --
Charles McCathie Nevile - web standards - CTO Office, Yandex
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = - - - Find more at http://yandex.com

From: Olaf Drümmer
Date: Mon, May 23 2016 12:38PM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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> On 23.05.2016, at 22:46, Chaals McCathie Nevile < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
>> Does anyone know of a conceptual approach that can accommodate accessibility for data visualization (beyond alternative text or alternate -= text based - presentation forms)?
>
> Yes. There is a lot that could be done with SVG. Although implementation of accessibility features tends to be weak still, there are examples that show a lot of potential.
>
> Have a look at https://github.com/SVG-access-W3CG/use-case-examples for some starting points. Incorporating a lot of what works into charting libraries is not terribly complex despite being rare. Same for fixing a lot of the simpler browser bugs.

thanks for the pointers - though none of that looks like a conceptual approach to me… And lack of conceptual approach implies: unlikely to be implemented.

Olaf

From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Mon, May 23 2016 6:08PM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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> Does anyone know of a conceptual approach that can accommodate accessibility for data visualization (beyond alternative text or alternate -= text based - presentation forms)?

I've always envisioned a mode where the user can actually jump into the graph and move by nodes or points etc and explore the graph and find out information about it. This would seem to work best for di-graphs but could be applied other places. Each node would be an accessible object with properties that could be announced or queried with keyboards or other commands.

Taking that further into gamification -- it seems like even in a line chart you could actually turn the experience into an interactive 3d experience -- for example allow a user to ride the graph like a roller coaster to explore it's up and downs while hearing the values and change and seeing visual changes like you are going up and down. There are already audio projects to turn images and charts into 3D sounds but I haven't examined an visual emersion techniques. I'm sure people use things like this to model DNA, molecules and other 3D items-- but why not use it for traditional 2D items.

Jonathan

Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group 
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
703.637.8957 (Office)

Visit us online: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Linkedin | Blog
Check out our Digital Accessibility Webinars!

From: Chaals McCathie Nevile
Date: Tue, May 24 2016 2:27AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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On Mon, 23 May 2016 18:38:04 -0000, Olaf Drümmer < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
wrote:

>> On 23.05.2016, at 22:46, Chaals McCathie Nevile < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Does anyone know of a conceptual approach that can accommodate
>>> accessibility for data visualization (beyond alternative text or
>>> alternate -= text based - presentation forms)?
>>
>> Yes. There is a lot that could be done with SVG. Although
>> implementation of accessibility features tends to be weak still, there
>> are examples that show a lot of potential.
>>
>> Have a look at https://github.com/SVG-access-W3CG/use-case-examples for
>> some starting points. Incorporating a lot of what works into charting
>> libraries is not terribly complex despite being rare. Same for fixing a
>> lot of the simpler browser bugs.
>
> thanks for the pointers - though none of that looks like a conceptual
> approach to me… And lack of conceptual approach implies: unlikely to be
> implemented.

It's not a conceptual approach, it's a slowly developing proof of concept.

The concept is to demonstrate what can be done based on what is *already*
implemented.

cheers

--
Charles McCathie Nevile - web standards - CTO Office, Yandex
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = - - - Find more at http://yandex.com

From: Angela French
Date: Tue, May 24 2016 9:44AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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Mike is it possible for you to link to a tableau dashboard and its alternative presentation? Would love to see how you handled it.

Angela French
SBCTC

From: Moore,Michael (Accessibility) (HHSC)
Date: Tue, May 24 2016 10:56AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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Sorry Angela,

The applications that will use Tableau are currently under development. I am not even sure if any of this will be public facing.

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

From: Olaf Drümmer
Date: Tue, May 24 2016 2:22PM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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> On 24.05.2016, at 17:44, Angela French < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> If anyone knows of an accessible data visualization tool I would really appreciate it if you would share that information with this list.

To be honest I believe there are a couple of challenges that can't be overcome easily…:

Tableau or any similar tool is a tool to makes large amounts of data accessible to sighted people, usually by distilling some essence out of such data that otherwise would be next to impossible to consume.

In Tableau, it is in principle possible to reveal all of the source data in text form. In principle a non-sighted user could use text to speech/Braille displays/screen readers etc. to have this data presented. Nonetheless, this would be essentially useless for most scenarios, as the amount of data is just overwhelming. A non-sighted user might be better off by using some kind of query language and extract distilled information through that query language (could be painful though as learning such a query language might be tedious).

For sighted users with some other disability, like a motor impairment (or maybe users with reduced vision), one could envision that accessibility would mostly mean accessible navigation. In Tableau (and probably any similar tool) one can interact with the dashboards in many ways. For users with a print disability Tableau might actually turn out to be quite accessibility - more visualization, less text to consume. From a cognitive disability point of view, accessibility will probably mostly depend on the content represented and the level of abstraction and complexity in the data/the dashboards.

So maybe we should be looking for the right angle when it comes to accessibility of data visualization tools?

Olaf

PS: I am writing this after just having spent quite a few hours playing with Tableau on a huge data table with hundreds of thousands of records with ca. 100 fields per record. Just think what it would be like to "read" 10 million pieces of information… With the dashboards I built, consuming more or less the same data and making some sense out of them will take a few minutes… As the underlying data is dynamic and could change every other minute, writing (or dynamically synthesizing) alternative text could turn out to mostly pointless.

From: Kelley Howell
Date: Tue, May 24 2016 3:03PM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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I was thinking along the same lines and then wondered: is there a data visualization tool for the desktop that is accessible?

But then it occurred to me that if you are Edward Tufte, the data visualization genius, he would want his data to tell a story. Since stories are told in words, then we can use words.

So, if you have a cluster map, you could write the program to read the description of the cluster map's output. Bear with me because this is off the cuff, not thought out, but I hope it gets across my general idea.

I am curious if you think this would be more useful than what we have now?

Example 1:

Overview: This cluster map is showing the number of foreclosures in differently bounded areas which are identified as neighborhood, ZIP Code, City, County, State, Region, and Country.

Specific View: This cluster map shows the top 50 areas with the highest number of foreclosures in ZIP codes (and corresponding Place Names) located in the United States. From largest to smallest, starting with largest:

"Very large cluster. 527 homes in foreclosure in the Zip Code 67891 with the Place San Antonio Texas.
Very large cluster. 498 homes in foreclosure in the Zip Code 33415 in Newport, Tennessee."

Example 2:
Or a description of a bar chart:
"This bar chart displays the demographic profile of people shopping for Nike shoes.

Gender. 60% men, 35% women, 5% other are shopping for Nike shoes.
Area type: 35% suburubanites, 25% urbanities, 30% rural residents shopping for Nike shoes.

And so forth.

From: Olaf Drümmer
Date: Wed, May 25 2016 4:14AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Tableau data dashboards?
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> On 24.05.2016, at 23:03, Kelley Howell < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> But then it occurred to me that if you are Edward Tufte, the data visualization genius, he would want his data to tell a story. Since stories are told in words, then we can use words.

I fully agree with regard to carefully crafted, static data visualization (serving for the presentation of something one could call a story, though I am not sure the story could in all cases be easily synthesized from the actual presentation, but at least some decent text based representation could probably be derived; do not forget though that seemingly obvious implicit properties, like the steep slope of a line, is not easily derived as being relevant from a given visualization form).

When using tools like Tableau, the situation (at least from y point of view) is slightly different, as they serve both presentation and exploration. And it is the latter that is a major challenge.

> So, if you have a cluster map, you could write the program to read the description of the cluster map's output. Bear with me because this is off the cuff, not thought out, but I hope it gets across my general idea.
>
> I am curious if you think this would be more useful than what we have now?

I like your examples. If someone could take the time and do some research on how far this can be taken, that would be very cool.

> Example 1:
>
> Overview: This cluster map is showing the number of foreclosures in differently bounded areas which are identified as neighborhood, ZIP Code, City, County, State, Region, and Country.
>
> Specific View: This cluster map shows the top 50 areas with the highest number of foreclosures in ZIP codes (and corresponding Place Names) located in the United States. From largest to smallest, starting with largest:
>
> "Very large cluster. 527 homes in foreclosure in the Zip Code 67891 with the Place San Antonio Texas.
> Very large cluster. 498 homes in foreclosure in the Zip Code 33415 in Newport, Tennessee."
>
> Example 2:
> Or a description of a bar chart:
> "This bar chart displays the demographic profile of people shopping for Nike shoes.
>
> Gender. 60% men, 35% women, 5% other are shopping for Nike shoes.
> Area type: 35% suburubanites, 25% urbanities, 30% rural residents shopping for Nike shoes.
>
> And so forth.


Olaf