From Uncharted Territory: Accessibility & Interactive Data Experiences • Frank Elavsky • YOW! 2025

This presentation was recorded at YOW! Australia 2025. #GOTOcon #YOW
https://yowcon.com

Frank Elavsky - Researcher at Carnegie Mellon University @frankelavsky9336 

ORIGINAL TALK TITLE
From Charted to Uncharted Territory: Accessibility & Interactive Data Experiences

RESOURCES
https://bsky.app/profile/frank.computer
https://github.com/frankelavsky
https://www.linkedin.com/in/elavsky
https://www.frank.computer

Links
https://download.microsoft.com/download/b/0/d/b0d4bf87-09ce-4417-8f28-d60703d672ed/inclusive_toolkit_manual_final.pdf
https://github.com/Chartability
https://medium.com/nightingale/writing-alt-text-for-data-visualization-2a218ef43f81
https://hcii.cmu.edu
https://axle-lab.com
https://dig.cmu.edu

ABSTRACT
Access to information matters. Information helps us make decisions and is a key part of being able to participate in society: from getting details about elections, learning about a global pandemic, and keeping track of personal health, we create interactive experiences with data in order to help people live fuller, more-informed lives. But many of the visualizations, dashboards, charts, and graphs we create exclude people with disabilities from accessing information.

In this session, I'll give a short introduction to accessibility, what it is and why it is important, and share helpful frameworks, tools, and guidelines for how to get started doing accessibility work for designing and building interactive data experiences. I'll teach practical, applicable skills and attendees will have exposure to examples that can help reinforce what they've learned. This talk is intended to give everyone a sense of shared understanding of what accessibility is and how to practically apply it to data work. [...]

TIMECODES
00:00 Intro
00:57 Understanding perception of language
04:07 Agenda
09:15 Why care about accessibility?
16:32 What is "disability"?
24:12 How?
27:02 Perceivable
31:11 Don't rely on color alone
33:31 Operable
37:04 Understandable
38:51 Outro

Download slides and read the full abstract here:
https://yowcon.com/brisbane-2025/sessions/3874

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Daniel Kahneman • Thinking, Fast and Slow • https://amzn.to/2XmJEtf
Thaler & Sunstein • Nudge • https://amzn.to/3CglrmX
Dan Ariely • Predictably Irrational • https://amzn.to/3lyDBd7
Robert B Cialdini • Influence, New and Expanded • https://amzn.to/3tL8GxB
Fabio Pereira • Digital Nudge • https://amzn.to/3yhxJu9
Cathy O'Neil • Weapons of Math Destruction • https://amzn.to/3EO8Bi7
Nir Eyal • Indistractable • https://amzn.to/3EE3Pn9
Eckhart Tolle • The Power of Now • https://amzn.to/39yjS7r

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#Accessibility #DataExperiences #UX #UI #UserExperience #UserInterface #GoodDesign #Frontend #BadDesign #Attention #Chartability #FrankElavsky #YOWcon

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