Methodology for heuristic evaluation of the accessibility of statistical charts for people with low vision and color vision deficiency

Abstract

Purpose: Statistical charts have an important role in conveying, clarifying and simplifying information, and have a significant presence in fields such as education, scientific research or journalism. Despite numerous advances in the field of digital accessibility, charts are still a challenge for people with low vision and color vision deficiency (CVD) and create barriers that hinder their accessibility. The research presented in this paper aim is to create a heuristic set of indicators to evaluate the accessibility of statistical charts focusing on the needs of people with low vision and CVD. Methods: The set of heuristics presented has been developed based on the methodology by Quiñones et al. (2018), which consists of 8 stages: (1) a state of the art literature review; (2 and 3) analysis and description of the most relevant information obtained from this research; (4, 5, and 6) selection and specification of a first set of heuristics relating them to existing heuristics; (7) validation; and (8) refining the set to obtain a final list of heuristics. Results: A first set of heuristics (17 indicators) has been developed and applied on two heuristic evaluations, and has been amplified to 18 indicators. The final set covers the needs of the user profiles with low vision as well as the needs of the CVD and poor contrast sensitivity users. Conclusion: this research is a first step to widen accessibility requirements to statistical charts and to take into consideration users with low vision and CVD, often forgotten in accessibility research.

Accessibility engineering in web evaluation process: a systematic literature review

“…The aim was to increase accessibility awareness and encourage product designers to design and develop an accessible solution. Alcaraz Martínez et al [114] addressed that several statistical charts on websites are valuable for representing the information. Unfortunately, charts on websites are not accessible for people with low vision and CVD.…”

“…(E 3 .) Assets for usability evaluation methods: (1) statistical techniques for usability testing of m-Health application [112]; (2) questionnaire-based evaluation for user experience testing [113]; (3) quantitative and qualitative analysis considering the user performance, computing task completion time, and correct task completion ratio [62]; (4) quantitative and qualitative analysis with statistical measurements to evaluate user perceptions [115]; (5) statistical analysis to determine the relationship between web accessibility and usability [31]; (6) user evaluation to improve website accessibility and interface usability by reducing the cognitive load of people with blindness [116]; (7) hybrid evaluation process to identify the effectiveness of usability and interface design [33]; (8) quantitative and qualitative analysis to evaluate user perceptions for interactive user interface design [114].…”

How accessible is my visualization? Evaluating visualization accessibility with Chartability

“…Since the 1990s, the most prominent and active accessibility topic in visualization has been color vision deficiency [CC17,NAR18,Oli13,LCI * 20,MTS21]. Research projects that explore tactile sensory substitutions have been a topic in computational sciences dating back to the 1983 [GSF83], with tactile sensory substitutions being used for maps and charts as far back as the 1830s [Hal].…”

“…Heuristic evaluation models have a long history in HCI and are cheap to use and require little expertise. They have been shown to be effective methods for practitioners compared to user testing, focus groups, or other evaluative methods that require existing expert knowledge or recruitment, moderation, and compensation of participants [MTS21,CSA15,BUSC18,Nie,JLBJ16,Nie94,Ote17,SSD18,SC99,Bou18]. Heuristics are also not new in visualization [FJ10,CC05,OGdS17,Sch11] even among topics related to accessibility (color vision deficiency, specifically) [SSD18,Oli13].…”

Usability Testing on Tracer Study System Using The Heuristic Evaluation Method

“…This method allows evaluators who can independently evaluate and assess the system from every aspect of usability heuristics that indicate usability problems in a system. This study aims to determine the usability level of the Universitas Lancang Kuning tracer study system using the Heuristic Evaluation method (Alcaraz Martínez, et al, 2021;.…”