Here’s another in a series of tips on how to make data visualizations accessible to audience members with issues that affect their ability to see or interact with a visualization. This week it’s text size.
The rule of thumb is: Text must not be smaller than 9 point in size. Ideally only minor text is rendered at 9 point (e.g. axis labels) while all other text is larger. The viz below has a lot of text, and most of it is 9 point. To increase its accessibility, I might increase the key sentences in the captions to 11 point. But, at the least, I’d bump up the 8 point text, near the bottom, to 9 point, which is what you see in the “After” version below.
If you are interested in a deep dive into accessibility issues and solutions, you can find plenty of information online including Chartability.
To see past data tips, click HERE.
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