Charts and graphs tracking COVID worldwide alongside maps and data-driven articles on the 2020 U.S. presidential election have set a precedent for data visualization as a staple in everyday life like never before. But most visualizations are woefully inaccessible. In the United States alone, as many as 26% of adults report some kind of functional disability. Worldwide nearly 29% of adults have some form of moderate to severe vision impairment. Deficient visualization design can exclude a quarter of all people (by conservative estimates). If data visualization is so important, what can be done to include everyone?
This talk will outline a practical approach for evaluating the accessibility of a data visualization's design as well as give a framework for approaching viz design that is more inclusive for users with a wide array of disabilities. Attendees will get to take away a workbook they can leverage to audit their own work, as well as an understanding for the vast ways in which data visualization can be improved to be more accessible.
