Timeline of Accessibility Milestones for Flourish
This timeline highlights the accessibility milestones of the Flourish platform. Starting in February 2018 with the public launch of Flourish, the timeline features key updates:
Flourish launch
February 2018
In 2018, Flourish launched publicly, allowing anyone to start producing and publishing visualizations and stories for free.
Learn more in our blog post →Annotations
April 2020
By launching annotations, we made it possible for users to annotate their charts and add context.
Learn more in our blog post →Spacing and Separation
August 2020
Separation techniques can help users distinguish between series.
Learn more in our blog post →Screenreader descriptions
November 2020
We made it possible to supply a text-based alternative to the visual aspect of your Flourish graphic.
Learn more in our blog post →Keyboard-navigable template settings
April 2021
We made the Flourish platform more accessible by making it possible to tab through template settings and the data tab.
Explore the features for yourself →Keyboard-navigable controls and legends
July 2022
We started work on keyboard-navigable controls and legends, which was completed in August 2023.
Explore the features for yourself →Line labels
November 2022
We refined line labels to minimize overlap and enhance accessibility.
Explore the features for yourself →Keyboard-navigable data points
November 2022
We started work on keyboard-navigable data points; this work is still in progress.
Explore our progress here →Improved ARIA attributes for data points and controls
August 2023- For the ARIA role of the data point:
role="img" - For the ARIA label of the data point:
aria-label="Japan" - For the ARIA role description of the data point:
aria-roledescription="data point"
- For the ARIA role of the data point:
This photo slider consists of two images. The first image shows a datasheet filled with rows and columns of numerical data, representing the raw details essential for analysis. The second image features a colorful chart that transforms these numbers into visual patterns. The chart serves as an accessibility tool in its own right by breaking down complex data into easily processed, visual insights.
Accessibility Considerations
Low vision
- High contrast text
- High contrast elements
- Using texture, shape, units
- Designing with zoom/magnification
- Using Hierarchy and Focus
- Using annotations or guides
Functional/motor impairment
- Keyboard interactivity/navigation
- UI alternatives to in-chart controls (brushing, subselecting, etc)
- Alternative data navigation schemes
- Scrollytelling alternates
Cognitive disabilities
- Captions, summaries, clear titles, and plain text alternatives
- Reducing visual complexity
- Forgivable user interactions
- Use of hierarchy
- Assistive design (how-to-read guides, help)
Attention deficit disorders
- Clear, short text summaries
- Object constancy
- Motion design and animation
- Use of breadcrumbs
- Interaction history (with undo/redo functions)
Size by:
- Global biomass
- Abundance of organisms
A treemap showing that although plants make up the majority of global biomass, they are not the most abundant in terms of population. There is a button control that can be used to size between the two metrics.
Future Updates
- Make controls (buttons, sliders, dropdowns) keyboard-accessible across all visualization templates
- Support color contrast labels or text outlines across all templates
- Make data points keyboard-accessible across all templates
- Make popup content screenreader-accessible across all templates
- Dark mode