An evaluation of accessibility of Covid-19 statistical charts of governments and health organisations for people with low vision

During the Covid-19 pandemic, people rely on the Internet in order to obtain information that can help them understand the coronavirus crisis. This situation has exposed the need to ensure that everyone has access to essential information on equal terms. During this situation, statistical charts hav...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Alcaraz Martínez, Rubén, Ribera Turró, Mireia
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Recursos:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10459.1/71514
Acesso em linha:https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.sep.14
http://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/71514
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Covid-19
SARS-CoV-2
2019-nCoV
Coronavirus
Pandemics
Statistical charts
Information visualization
Low vision
Colour vision deficiency
Colour blindness
Web accessibility
Health information
Heuristic evaluation
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spelling An evaluation of accessibility of Covid-19 statistical charts of governments and health organisations for people with low visionAlcaraz Martínez, RubénRibera Turró, MireiaCovid-19SARS-CoV-22019-nCoVCoronavirusPandemicsStatistical chartsInformation visualizationLow visionColour vision deficiencyColour blindnessWeb accessibilityHealth informationHeuristic evaluationDuring the Covid-19 pandemic, people rely on the Internet in order to obtain information that can help them understand the coronavirus crisis. This situation has exposed the need to ensure that everyone has access to essential information on equal terms. During this situation, statistical charts have been used to display data related to the pandemic, and have had an important role in conveying, clarifying and simplifying information provided by governments and health organisations. Scientific literature and the guidelines published by organizations have focused on proposing solutions to make charts accessible for blind people or people with very little visual rest. However, the same efforts are not made towards people with low vision, despite their higher prevalence in the population of users with visual impairment. This paper reviews the accessibility of the statistical charts about the Covid-19 crisis for people with low vision that were published by the Brazilian, British, Russian, Spanish, European Union, and the United States’ governments and also by the World Health Organization and Johns Hopkins University, relating to the countries most severely affected by the pandemic. The review is based on specific heuristic indicators, with a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach. Overall, the reviewed charts offer a reasonable level of accessibility, although there are some relevant problems affecting many of the low vision profiles that remain to be solved. The main problems identified are: poor text alternatives in both, raster images and SVG charts; the incompatibility with a keyboard interface; insufficient non-text contrast against adjacent colours (in chart elements such as bars, lines or areas), no customization options; and the lack of an optimized print version for users for whom reading on screen is challenging.This research has been done in the framework of the PhD Programme in Engineering and Information Technology of the Universitat de Lleida (UdL) and has been partially supported by the Spanish project PID2019-105093GB-I00 (Mineco/Feder, UE); Cerca Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya; and by Mineco Grant RTI2018-095232-B-C21 and SGR 1742.EPI SCP202120212020info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttps://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.sep.14http://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/71514http://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/71514reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunyainstname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)InglésReproducció del document publicat a https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.sep.14Profesional de la información, 2020, vol. 29, núm. 5, e290514(c) EPI SCP, 2020info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:recercat.cat:10459.1/715142026-05-29T05:05:01Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv An evaluation of accessibility of Covid-19 statistical charts of governments and health organisations for people with low vision
title An evaluation of accessibility of Covid-19 statistical charts of governments and health organisations for people with low vision
spellingShingle An evaluation of accessibility of Covid-19 statistical charts of governments and health organisations for people with low vision
Alcaraz Martínez, Rubén
Covid-19
SARS-CoV-2
2019-nCoV
Coronavirus
Pandemics
Statistical charts
Information visualization
Low vision
Colour vision deficiency
Colour blindness
Web accessibility
Health information
Heuristic evaluation
title_short An evaluation of accessibility of Covid-19 statistical charts of governments and health organisations for people with low vision
title_full An evaluation of accessibility of Covid-19 statistical charts of governments and health organisations for people with low vision
title_fullStr An evaluation of accessibility of Covid-19 statistical charts of governments and health organisations for people with low vision
title_full_unstemmed An evaluation of accessibility of Covid-19 statistical charts of governments and health organisations for people with low vision
title_sort An evaluation of accessibility of Covid-19 statistical charts of governments and health organisations for people with low vision
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Alcaraz Martínez, Rubén
Ribera Turró, Mireia
author Alcaraz Martínez, Rubén
author_facet Alcaraz Martínez, Rubén
Ribera Turró, Mireia
author_role author
author2 Ribera Turró, Mireia
author2_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Covid-19
SARS-CoV-2
2019-nCoV
Coronavirus
Pandemics
Statistical charts
Information visualization
Low vision
Colour vision deficiency
Colour blindness
Web accessibility
Health information
Heuristic evaluation
topic Covid-19
SARS-CoV-2
2019-nCoV
Coronavirus
Pandemics
Statistical charts
Information visualization
Low vision
Colour vision deficiency
Colour blindness
Web accessibility
Health information
Heuristic evaluation
description During the Covid-19 pandemic, people rely on the Internet in order to obtain information that can help them understand the coronavirus crisis. This situation has exposed the need to ensure that everyone has access to essential information on equal terms. During this situation, statistical charts have been used to display data related to the pandemic, and have had an important role in conveying, clarifying and simplifying information provided by governments and health organisations. Scientific literature and the guidelines published by organizations have focused on proposing solutions to make charts accessible for blind people or people with very little visual rest. However, the same efforts are not made towards people with low vision, despite their higher prevalence in the population of users with visual impairment. This paper reviews the accessibility of the statistical charts about the Covid-19 crisis for people with low vision that were published by the Brazilian, British, Russian, Spanish, European Union, and the United States’ governments and also by the World Health Organization and Johns Hopkins University, relating to the countries most severely affected by the pandemic. The review is based on specific heuristic indicators, with a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach. Overall, the reviewed charts offer a reasonable level of accessibility, although there are some relevant problems affecting many of the low vision profiles that remain to be solved. The main problems identified are: poor text alternatives in both, raster images and SVG charts; the incompatibility with a keyboard interface; insufficient non-text contrast against adjacent colours (in chart elements such as bars, lines or areas), no customization options; and the lack of an optimized print version for users for whom reading on screen is challenging.
publishDate 2020
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2020
2021
2021
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.sep.14
http://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/71514
http://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/71514
url https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.sep.14
http://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/71514
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Reproducció del document publicat a https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.sep.14
Profesional de la información, 2020, vol. 29, núm. 5, e290514
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv (c) EPI SCP, 2020
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv (c) EPI SCP, 2020
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv EPI SCP
publisher.none.fl_str_mv EPI SCP
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
instname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
instname_str Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
reponame_str Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
collection Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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