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    Accessibility resources toolkit Chapter 7

    Accessible graphs and tables

    What you will learn in this chapter

    • Resources on accessible graphs and charts
    • Resources on making your tables accessible
    • Guidance on making excel spreadsheets accessible

    Introduction

    Data must be accessible to everyone. There are a few ways you can make your data more accessible.

    Graphs and charts

    Graphs and charts can make data easier to read and more accessible to some users. But they must be made accessible to other users too. You can do this through text summaries and alternative versions of the data, like a table.

    They must also be accessible to those with low vision or colour blindness.

    Important

    You must not only use colour to convey information.

    Here are a couple of articles on creating accessible charts and graphs:

    Tables

    Tables can help you display data and can be an accessible alternative to a graph or chart. You must make sure the headers and columns are labelled correctly. And they can be understood and navigated easily.

    Here are a few articles on how to make your tables accessible:

    Important

    Do not use a table to display non-data content or to improve the page layout.

    This is because:

    • consuming content in a table can be overwhelming for some people
    • it can be harder for people to scan and understand for people using screen magnifiers
    • screen readers read layout tables from left to right, top to bottom. This can make content confusing or misleading if not structured correctly

    A non-data table can often be replaced by a list of bullets, with appropriate sub-headings.

    Excel documents

    If you have a lot of data, or complex data, you might want to use an excel spreadsheet instead of a table. Some features in Excel can create barriers. Make sure you design your document to be as inclusive as possible.

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    To do this, we partner with organisations to work on larger strategic goals together. For wider social change. For their customers. For their clients. For their employees.

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