Sociotechnical Considerations for Accessible Visualization Design

09/11/2019
by   Alan Lundgard, et al.
0

Accessibility–the process of designing for people with disabilities (PWD)–is an important but under-explored challenge in the visualization research community. Without careful attention, and if PWD are not included as equal participants throughout the process, there is a danger of perpetuating a vision-first approach to accessible design that marginalizes the lived experience of disability (e.g., by creating overly simplistic "sensory translations" that map visual to non-visual modalities in a one-to-one fashion). In this paper, we present a set of sociotechnical considerations for research in accessible visualization design, drawing on literature in disability studies, tactile information systems, and participatory methods. We identify that using state-of-the-art technologies may introduce more barriers to access than they remove, and that expectations of research novelty may not produce outcomes well-aligned with the needs of disability communities. Instead, to promote a more inclusive design process, we emphasize the importance of clearly communicating goals, following existing accessibility guidelines, and treating PWD as equal participants who are compensated for their specialized skills. To illustrate how these considerations can be applied in practice, we discuss a case study of an inclusive design workshop held in collaboration with the Perkins School for the Blind.

READ FULL TEXT
research
06/09/2023

Iterative Design of An Accessible Crypto Wallet for Blind Users

Crypto wallets are a key touch-point for cryptocurrency use. People use ...
research
09/04/2023

Why Change My Design: Explaining Poorly Constructed Visualization Designs with Explorable Explanations

Although visualization tools are widely available and accessible, not ev...
research
02/21/2022

Making Data Tangible: A Cross-disciplinary Design Space for Data Physicalization

Designing a data physicalization requires a myriad of different consider...
research
03/10/2023

Data, Data, Everywhere: Uncovering Everyday Data Experiences for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Data is everywhere but may not be accessible to everyone. Conventional d...
research
05/10/2022

Rich Screen Reader Experiences for Accessible Data Visualization

Current web accessibility guidelines ask visualization designers to supp...
research
09/03/2021

Illegible Semantics: Exploring the Design Space of Metal Logos

The logos of metal bands can be by turns gaudy, uncouth, or nearly illeg...
research
11/14/2021

What Should We Optimize in Participatory Budgeting? An Experimental Study

Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a process in which voters decide how to ...

Please sign up or login with your details

Forgot password? Click here to reset