Accessible Data Visualizations

A high-level overview of accessible alternatives to very complex graphics

from: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#additional-covid-data

TL; DR

1. Just because something is complicated and intensely visual doesn’t mean it can’t be made accessible.
2. Everything has to be accessible; however, accessible doesn’t mean identical, it means equivalent. The ADA didn’t make stairs illegal. The ADA requires that there be a ramp and elevator to provide people with mobility issues access to everywhere that the stairs go.
3. When a UI is complex, it is even more critical to answer the questions “how are we going to make this accessible” and “what are our users going to do with this” as early in the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) process as possible.
4. Choosing the correct visualization libraries, metadata, filtering options, and personalization features are essential to building a complex set of data visualizations that everyone can consume in the manner that works best for them.

From bar charts to data sets with millions of underlying data points, data visualizations are here to stay as part of the business and healthcare software ecosystem.

Business information delineated in simple-to-understand graphical formats can lead users to draw better conclusions…