Data visualisations can now be accessible to screen reader users
Data visualization accessibility for screen reader users has been enhanced with a new JavaScript plugin called VoxLens, designed by a team from the University of Washington. This innovation was presented at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in New Orleans.
Data visualisation is an important part of online media, but they’re often inaccessible to people who use screen readers.
Screen reader is a type of assistive technology in the form of a software program that scans contents of a computer screen and transforms it into a different format- like synthesised voice or Braille – for people with complete or partial blindness, learning disabilities, or motion sensitivity.
A team of scientists from the University of Washington (UW) in the US has designed a JavaScript plugin called VoxLens that allows people to better interact with these visualisations. They presented their research at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in New Orleans in the US.
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