Figure Accessibility

The practice of making visual figures, charts, graphs, and diagrams in documents and publications accessible to people who cannot see them, particularly blind and low vision users. Figure accessibility encompasses multiple approaches including descriptive alt text, data tables, tactile graphics, auditory graphs (sonification), and interactive chart exploration tools. In scientific publishing, figure accessibility remains a major barrier — studies show that the vast majority of academic papers lack usable alt text for their figures, effectively excluding blind and low vision researchers from engaging with data visualizations that convey key research findings.