Visualization Literacy

The ability to read, interpret, and extract meaningful insights from visual data representations such as charts, graphs, maps, and infographics. Visualization literacy encompasses skills like identifying trends, making comparisons, understanding scales and axes, and critically evaluating the accuracy of presented data. For blind and visually impaired users, visualization literacy extends to non-visual data representations including sonification, tactile graphics, and structured data tables. Research shows that prior domain knowledge and familiarity with specific representation formats significantly affect how accurately users interpret data, making it important for accessible data presentations to not assume specialized knowledge.