Accessible Visualization at Scale: Designing A HCI Framework for Inclusive & Accessible Data Experiences Across Organizational UX

Abstract

Data visualizations are central to digital products, but their accessibility is often addressed individually and late in development. This fragmented approach creates inconsistent experiences across dashboards and platforms, particularly for people with visual, motor, cognitive, and learning disabilities. This approach is disjointed, with a lack of consistency from dashboard to dashboard and platform to platform, especially for those with visual, motor, cognitive and learning disabilities. This research introduces a framework for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to systematically design, develop and test accessible data visualization for organizational product ecosystems. In this research, an accessibility audit for visualization components and interviews with designers, developers, data analysts, accessibility specialists, and handicapped users were carried out. The results led to a re-usable framework that includes: Semantic chart structures, exploration using keyboard, screen-reader friendly exploration, encoding using strategies that are not based on color, alternative texts, adjustable information density, plain-language summaries and multimodal interaction. Representative components were built and tested by comparative usability testing with users who are blind or low vision, users with color vision deficiency, users who are neurodivergent, and users with differing levels of data literacy. The accuracy of the tasks, comprehension, efficiency in task navigation, cognitive load, confidence, and perceived agency were measured in the evaluation. Other organizational factors that were explored included design-system governance, documentation, team responsibilities, and accessibility testing. Study results include a validated HCI framework, reusable visualization patterns, and an organizational assessment model for transitioning accessibility from chart remediation to scalable product capability.