Usability and accessibility » Visualizations
Commonly based on advanced visual representations, the accessibility of (interactive) information and data visualizations is often very limited. A growing community aims to tackle these limitations by developing and showcasing best practices.
The probably most comprehensive “starter pack” on this topic – I consider this a must-read for anyone working with data visualization:
Standpoints
SourceData visualization cares disproportionately far too much about designing for colorblindness relative to other disabilities that are more common (visual impairments included).
— Frank ⌁ (@FrankElavsky) January 18, 2021
(A thread on disability, race, and patriarchy in data visualization.)
Frank Elavsky highlights how the debate is too much focused on colourblindness etc., with is also a systemically male-focussed approach, and other aspects would be much more important to tackle.
Intros
Some other sources that provide a good starting point to dive into the topic:
Specific aspects of dataviz a11y
Colors
Alt text
Creating descriptive alternative representations of data visualizations is a complex task. While the general considerations for alt texts apply, visualized data comes with additional considerations:
It gets even more complicated with interactive presentations, as the interactive features have to be represented in the alternative content as well:
SVG
Vector graphics, with SVG itself being semantic, provide ample opportunities for designing accessible data visualizations. But mastering this skill is far from easy:
D3.js
Comics
There is an active community working on questions of how to make comics more accessible. Their work can also inform other fields of making visual content accessible.



A blog post sharing a list of resources from a webinar on the topic of accessible comics.
Case studies
- How (not) to make accessible data visualizations, illustrated by the US presidential election. by Sarah L. Fossheim
- What we can learn from Apple’s dataviz accessibility by Sarah L. Fossheim
- A template for accessible data visualizations, and the derived guidelines document Data visualization standards for SF.gov - Public Data Visualization Guide
Resources
Hubs
Lists
Some websites that collect resources around this topic:
- Sarah L. Fossheim's list of their articles on a11y issues in data visualization
- dataviza11y/resources: A non-exhaustive and in-progress list of people and resources in Accessibility and Data Visualization, and dataviza11y/Why-We-Exist on the background story
- design-accessible.fr
Frameworks and tools with potential for good a11y


Charts.css is a modern CSS framework. It uses CSS utility classes to style HTML elements as charts.A […]

I'm Sebastian, Sociologist and Interaction Designer aiming to bring together social science and design for inclusive, privacy-focused, and sustainable "human-first" digital strategies. This is my "digital garden" with carefully curated resources. For a more stream-like outlet, see my journal.
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