Accessible charts are part of the equation of accessible papers: a heuristic evaluation of the highest impact LIS journals

Abstract

PurposeStatistical charts are an essential source of information in academic papers. Charts have an important role in conveying, clarifying and simplifying the research results provided by the authors, but they present some accessibility barriers for people with low vision. This article aims to evaluate the accessibility of the statistical charts published in the library and information science (LIS) journals with the greatest impact factor.Design/methodology/approachA list of heuristic indicators developed by the authors has been used to assess the accessibility of statistical charts for people with low vision. The heuristics have been applied to a sample of charts from 2019 issues of ten LIS journals with the highest impact factor according to the ranking of the JCR.FindingsThe current practices of image submission do not follow the basic recommended guidelines on accessibility like color contrast or the use of textual alternatives. On the other hand, some incongruities between the technical suggestions of image submission and their application in analyzed charts also emerged. The main problems identified are: poor text alternatives, insufficient contrast ratio between adjacent colors and the inexistence of customization options. Authoring tools do not help authors to fulfill these requirements.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample is not very extensive; nonetheless, it is representative of common practices and the most frequent accessibility problems in this context.Social implicationsThe heuristics proposed are a good starting point to generate guidelines for authors when preparing their papers for publication and to guide journal publishers in creating accessible documents. Low-vision users, a highly prevalent condition, will benefit from the improvements.Originality/valueThe results of this research provide key insights into low-vision accessibility barriers, not considered in previous literature and can be a starting point for their solution.

Editorial: Special selection on contemporary bibliometric analytics

“…Readers may also be interested in bibliometric analytics of the evolutions and trends of AI (Borgohain et al ., 2022; Nugroho et al ., 2023; Shao et al ., 2022), mobile privacy and security (Beg et al ., 2022), fifth generation mobile communication technology (Farooqui et al ., 2021), accessibility of the statistical charts published in top library information science (LIS) journals (Alcaraz Martínez et al ., 2022) and ecopreneurship (Guleria and Kaur, 2021). Besides, Amjad et al .…”

Editorial: Special selection on bibliometrics and literature review

“…Based on the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) ranking of library and information science (LIS) journals, Alcaraz Martínez et al (2022) studied the accessibility of the statistical charts published in the top ten LIS journals based on their impact factor. They discovered that most images do not follow the basic recommended accessibility guidelines.…”

Visualizaciones de datos accesibles con Highcharts JS

“…Aunque en la última década se han producido muchos avances en el campo de la accesibilidad, las visualizaciones accesibles siguen siendo un reto pendiente (Simon et al, 2019;Alcaraz y Ribera, 2020a;Alcaraz et al, 2020b;Alcaraz et al, 2022). En este contexto, tanto la academia (Alcaraz et al, 2021;Elavsky et al, 2022), como el sector del software orientado a la creación de visualizaciones de datos ha incorporado diferentes metodologías, herramientas, funciones y características para facilitar a los autores la creación de contenido accesible.…”