Beyond visuals: Examining the experiences of geoscience professionals with vision disabilities in accessing data visualizations

Cherukuru, N., Bailey, D. A., Fourment, T., Hatheway, R. L., Holland, M. M., et al. (2022). Beyond visuals: Examining the experiences of geoscience professionals with vision disabilities in accessing data visualizations. Proceedings of IEEE VIS 2022: Visualization & Visual Analytics

Title Beyond visuals: Examining the experiences of geoscience professionals with vision disabilities in accessing data visualizations
Genre Chapter
Author(s) Nihanth Cherukuru, David A. Bailey, Tiffany Fourment, Rebecca L. Hatheway, Marika M. Holland, Matthew Rehme
Abstract Data visualizations are ubiquitous in all disciplines and have become the primary means of analysing data and communicating insights. However, the predominant reliance on visual encoding of data con-tinues to create accessibility barriers for people who are blind/vision impaired resulting in their under representation in Science, Tech-nology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. This research study seeks to understand the experiences of professionals who are blind/vision impaired in one such STEM discipline (geo-sciences) in accessing data visualizations. In-depth, semi-structured interviews with seven professionals were conducted to examine the accessibility barriers and areas for improvement to inform acces-sibility research pertaining to data visualizations through a socio-technical lens. A reflexive thematic analysis revealed the negative impact of visualizations in influencing their career path, lack of data exploration tools for research, barriers in accessing works of peers and mismatched pace of visualization and accessibility research. The article also includes recommendations from the participants to address some of these accessibility barriers.
Publication Title Proceedings of IEEE VIS 2022: Visualization & Visual Analytics
Publication Date Aug 1, 2022
Publisher's Version of Record
OpenSky Citable URL https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7mg7t8q
OpenSky Listing View on OpenSky
CISL Affiliations TDD, VAST

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