Purpose

Statistical charts are an essential source of information in academic papers. Charts have an important role in conveying, clarifying and simplifying the research results provided by the authors, but they present some accessibility barriers for people with low vision. This article aims to evaluate the accessibility of the statistical charts published in the library and information science (LIS) journals with the greatest impact factor.

Design/methodology/approach

A list of heuristic indicators developed by the authors has been used to assess the accessibility of statistical charts for people with low vision. The heuristics have been applied to a sample of charts from 2019 issues of ten LIS journals with the highest impact factor according to the ranking of the JCR.

Findings

The current practices of image submission do not follow the basic recommended guidelines on accessibility like color contrast or the use of textual alternatives. On the other hand, some incongruities between the technical suggestions of image submission and their application in analyzed charts also emerged. The main problems identified are: poor text alternatives, insufficient contrast ratio between adjacent colors and the inexistence of customization options. Authoring tools do not help authors to fulfill these requirements.

Research limitations/implications

The sample is not very extensive; nonetheless, it is representative of common practices and the most frequent accessibility problems in this context.

Social implications

The heuristics proposed are a good starting point to generate guidelines for authors when preparing their papers for publication and to guide journal publishers in creating accessible documents. Low-vision users, a highly prevalent condition, will benefit from the improvements.

Originality/value

The results of this research provide key insights into low-vision accessibility barriers, not considered in previous literature and can be a starting point for their solution.

中文翻译：

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可访问图表是可访问论文等式的一部分：对影响最大的 LIS 期刊的启发式评估

目的

统计图表是学术论文中重要的信息来源。图表在传达、澄清和简化作者提供的研究结果方面具有重要作用，但它们为弱视人群带来了一些可访问性障碍。本文旨在评估影响因子最大的图书馆与信息科学 (LIS) 期刊上发表的统计图表的可访问性。

设计/方法/方法

作者开发的启发式指标列表已用于评估低视力人群统计图表的可访问性。根据 JCR 的排名，启发式方法已应用于 10 个影响因子最高的 LIS 期刊 2019 年的图表样本。

发现

当前图像提交的做法不遵循关于可访问性的基本推荐指南，例如颜色对比或使用文本替代品。另一方面，图像提交的技术建议与其在分析图表中的应用之间也出现了一些不协调。确定的主要问题是：文本替代品差、相邻颜色之间的对比度不足以及不存在自定义选项。创作工具不能帮助作者满足这些要求。

研究限制/影响

样本不是很广泛；尽管如此，它代表了常见的做法和在这种情况下最常见的可访问性问题。

社会影响

提出的启发式方法是一个很好的起点，可以在作者准备论文发表时为作者制定指南，并指导期刊出版商创建可访问的文档。低视力用户是一种非常普遍的疾病，将受益于这些改进。

原创性/价值

这项研究的结果提供了对低视力可及性障碍的关键见解，这在以前的文献中没有考虑过，并且可以作为他们解决方案的起点。