How do we make our graphs more accessible?

This is a question I get asked a lot.

Accessibility is woven into all my trainings, but since this is a topic I get asked about a lot, I decided to make a new talk that’s focused just on accessibility for dataviz.

There's a misconception that accessibility takes all day, that’s it’s costly and complicated. Those are all false.

In Spring 2021 I gave a talk at the Good Tech Fest conference about dataviz accessibility quick wins.

The talk was “Choose Your Own Adventure” style where the audience chose what we discussed from a list of options. They chose:
• direct labels,
• lower the reading level, and
• lower the numeracy level.

Why Bother Lowering the Reading Level?!

We’re writing for busy people. The ones who see tons of graphs coming into their inbox every day.

We need to lower the reading level.

Not because our readers are dumb, but because they’re busy.

They need to be able to understand what you wrote the first time—not the second, third, or fourth readthrough.

Follow along with the conversation:

0:00 Intro
0:23 Accessibility doesn’t have to take all day
00:40 Why reading levels matter
1:32 Reallife example
2:00 Your turn: Lower the reading level
4:30 Ann’s reallife changes
6:08 Before vs after
6:54 How to test the reading level
08:30 Average U.S. reading level
09:16 What reading level do you need?
11:40 How to lower the reading level
13:48 Your turn: Reallife examples
18:50 How to test your work


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