Is your visualization usable by people with disabilities?
There are many considerations in making your visualization readable by a wide spectrum of humanity. If you follow the guidelines listed below, your visualization will be open to a broader portion of the population.
- Use takeaway titles. Reduce cognitive load by putting your main point in the title. When asked to describe data visualizations, readers often paraphrase the title.
- Watch your colors! As explained in the color page earlier, it's important to choose colors and backgrounds with high contrast. This ensures your visualization is accessible to folks with color blindness. This includes text color as well as graphic colors.
- Add alternative text to any graphics you may include your visualizations, including clipart and photos.
- When possible, label data directly instead of using a legend. This reduces the cognitive load required to accurately interpret your visualization.
- Don't be afraid of white space. Space between and around your graphics will ensure that different parts of your visualization don't interfere with each other, and allows readers to accurately interpret data. From a design perspective, it also looks great!
