What is web accessibility? “Web accessibility is the inclusive practice of ensuring there are no barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to, websites on the World Wide Web by people with physical disabilities, situational disabilities, and socio-economic restrictions on bandwidth and speed.” (Wikipedia). Consideration of web accessibility is important with any digital project, including digital mapping or digital storytelling.
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Accessibility Issues with Interactive Digital Maps
As Thomas Logan outlines in his “Accessible Maps on the Web” blog post for Equal Entry, interactive digital maps present a number of challenges for accessibility, both in terms of specific compliance regulations and more holistic approaches to inclusive design and UX. There are strategic choices you can make to help make interactive digital maps more accessible. But if an interactive digital map is the only way information is presented or data is communicated in your project, it likely will not be accessible to the widest range of users.
Should I Not Make Interactive Digital Maps?
Alan Leonard’s “The Accessibility of Web Maps” blog post for SparkGeo provides a helpful framework for thinking about accessibility and digital maps:
“Digital accessibility is much more than just making your website or service screen readable. It’s the answer to the question “Is everybody able to use and access your service when they need to?” There’s a wide range of disabilities with different levels of severity. Web maps can be a big source of frustration for users with disabilities because they rely so heavily on visuals, require some precise mouse movement, and can be a lot of information to take in all at once. By keeping web accessibility in mind and making it an intrinsic part of your application, everybody is going to benefit.”
What Steps Can I Take to Help My Project Be Accessible?
We encourage users to think of a map as one of any number of ways users can interact with your data and project. Even if the interactive digital map is the primary user interface for exploring the data, present the data in other formats for users. AirTable has easily embeddable tables, and WordPress has some handy plugins depending on the size of your dataset. R/R Studio can also generate public-facing data tables. You can also make your datasets available for users to download.
Recommendations for Web Maps & Web Apps
As you create maps and web apps, keep the following in mind:
- be careful in your use of color and ensure appropriate color contrasts and differentiation (basemap, layer colors…)
- ensure appropriate color contrasts – you can check contrast using WebAIM’s Color Contrast Checker)
- avoid colors that are too bright
- be careful when using colors to convey meaning (as color differences may not be perceivable to users with color vision deficiency, for example) – you can run checks on published maps using Toptal’s Colorblind Web Page Filter.
- consider how you can avoid using color alone to convey meaning: vary labels and color, utilize different shapes, change both size and color value of the same shape (source: “Improving Accessibility with ArcGIS Online Web Mapping Apps” presentation from Esri)
- be thoughtful about your text content (pop-ups, map descriptions, and more): break up walls of text, ensure appropriate typeface and font size when you are customizing, provide links that make sense out of context (i.e., no “click here”)
Recommendations for StoryMaps
As you create StoryMaps, keep the following in mind:
- be thoughtful in your use of color and ensure appropriate color contrasts with text and backgrounds
- consider how you can avoid using color alone to convey meaning – you can run checks on published maps using Toptal’s Colorblind Web Page Filter.
- break up walls of text
- ensure appropriate typeface and font size when you are customizing
- provide links that make sense out of context (i.e., no “click here”)
- provide alt text for images
Check out Esri’s own “Getting started with accessible storytelling” StoryMap to get more information and additional recommendations.
Check Your Work
You can use these resources to check your work:
- check color contrasts with WebAIM’s Contrast Checker
- check accessible color selection with Toptal’s Colorblind Web Page Filter, the Color Oracle software, or the Colorblindly Chrome extension
- ColorBrewer is a free online resource that is helpful for developing accessible color schema, for maps or other kinds of data visualizations
Additional Accessibility Resources
- The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) includes a condensed reference guide on “How to Meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.”
- Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE) is a free online tool for checking web page and site accessibility.
- The College’s Accessibility and Disability Resources Office is also available to discuss specific accessibility concerns.
More Information
ESRI markets ArcGIS products to non-US countries that have more stringent digital accessibility laws.
As detailed in an ESRI Canada blog post, “screen readers like ChromeVox or JAWS are currently compatible with ArcGIS web apps and ArcGIS Online…The following Esri blogs also discuss and provide guidance for accessibility with ArcGIS:
- Accessibility Guidelines: Colour Contrast Testing for Configurable Apps
- What’s New in Configurable Apps (Basic Viewer Support for WCAG)”
ArcGIS.com also includes a web page with more general overview information about accessibility and ArcGIS WebApps.
The U.S. Department of the Interior hosted a DOI Section 508 Outreach Event on “Integrating Accessibility into Information and Communication Technology: Improving Accessibility with ArcGIS Online Web Apps” the publicly-available video and slide deck from that event include useful tips from ESRI engineers about how to approach accessibility when building ArcGIS WebApps.
ESRI also held a “Web Accessibility Best Practices Webinar” that is archived on YouTube. Event description: “This webinar introduces the basics of web accessibility and its benefits to GIS professionals. We will provide an overview of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), the target standards for Section 508 compliance. We will highlight important WCAG criteria from the mindset of GIS professionals and how to incorporate them into the daily work. We will demonstrate the web accessibility support in ArcGIS. We will also discuss best practices and the latest development in creating accessible web maps. Finally, we will introduce a structured testing process for identifying and fixing web accessibility issues.”
Less documentation exists for accessibility and ArcGIS StoryMaps, but ArcGIS.com does include a web page with more general information.
