Exploring the Use of the Web Audio API to Improve Chart Accessibility

Source: https://www.google.co.uk/trends/explore#q=csun

Month	Searches
January 2004	59
February 2004	81
March 2004	72
April 2004	59
May 2004	65
June 2004	66
July 2004	47
August 2004	65
September 2004	62
October 2004	64
November 2004	64
December 2004	62
January 2005	57
February 2005	66
March 2005	64
April 2005	62
May 2005	63
June 2005	55
July 2005	55
August 2005	65
September 2005	62
October 2005	56
November 2005	64
December 2005	60
January 2006	59
February 2006	69
March 2006	67
April 2006	66
May 2006	71
June 2006	54
July 2006	55
August 2006	57
September 2006	70
October 2006	60
November 2006	64
December 2006	63
January 2007	68
February 2007	67
March 2007	69
April 2007	71
May 2007	78
June 2007	58
July 2007	60
August 2007	71
September 2007	62
October 2007	65
November 2007	67
December 2007	72
January 2008	75
February 2008	74
March 2008	69
April 2008	73
May 2008	76
June 2008	53
July 2008	59
August 2008	73
September 2008	75
October 2008	76
November 2008	71
December 2008	70
January 2009	73
February 2009	76
March 2009	80
April 2009	70
May 2009	72
June 2009	46
July 2009	50
August 2009	68
September 2009	69
October 2009	59
November 2009	60
December 2009	56
January 2010	56
February 2010	61
March 2010	59
April 2010	55
May 2010	56
June 2010	42
July 2010	48
August 2010	66
September 2010	66
October 2010	64
November 2010	62
December 2010	56
January 2011	60
February 2011	67
March 2011	69
April 2011	66
May 2011	71
June 2011	51
July 2011	53
August 2011	68
September 2011	82
October 2011	68
November 2011	73
December 2011	69
January 2012	67
February 2012	70
March 2012	67
April 2012	64
May 2012	70
June 2012	51
July 2012	52
August 2012	67
September 2012	69
October 2012	68
November 2012	69
December 2012	63
January 2013	61
February 2013	69
March 2013	65
April 2013	69
May 2013	71
June 2013	49
July 2013	54
August 2013	74
September 2013	75
October 2013	76
November 2013	72
December 2013	70
January 2014	71
February 2014	70
March 2014	73
April 2014	72
May 2014	79
June 2014	53
July 2014	62
August 2014	73
September 2014	80
October 2014	78
November 2014	73
December 2014	67
January 2015	68
February 2015	75
March 2015	73
April 2015	72
May 2015	80
June 2015	53
July 2015	57
August 2015	78
September 2015	82
October 2015	78
November 2015	76
December 2015	73
January 2016	68
February 2016	78

Accessibility Barriers

Overview
Navigation
Time to perceive and understand
Interactivity

Barriers for Authors/Developers

Many charts
Many accessibility approaches
Implementation time
Support time

Aims & Approaches

Aims

Improved accessibility
- Overview, navigation
- Time
- Understanding
Adoption
- Generic approach
- Robust

Approaches

Text-based
Semantic
Multimodal

Text-based

Table
Description
Statistical description

Table

Source: Wikipedia

Description

"There is a slight upwards trend, with a slight dip around 2011. There are seasonal variations, with regular troughs in June, but significantly higher interest during the rest of the year."

Statistical description

"The data are approximately normally-distributed with a mean of 42 and a standard deviation of 6."

Semantic

Multimodal

Reinforcement
Visualisation environments
CSUN session: Dig Into Your Data: Interactive Charts, Graphs and Maps
CSUN session: Translating Visual Information into Tactile Information

The Sonification Handbook

http://sonification.de/handbook/

AudioChart
Examples

Test Series
0
42
84
198
84
42
0

AudioChart
Research & Development

Research/Evaluation

…is ongoing
Relation to other approaches
Objective
Subjective

Development

Library (running client-side)
No additional dependencies
Interfaces with chart library
- …or table/JSON
Data-independent
Test-driven

Features Roadmap

Sound output sophistication
- Timbre, tempo, grid
- Smoothing
- Multiple series
Interactivity
- Keyboard handling
- Mouse
- Touch

Features Roadmap II

Chart libraries (e.g. C3.js, SVG, …)
Browser extension
- GreaseMonkey-style apparoch
- More customisation?