Senior UX Researcher & Accessibility Specialist at Aplikacje Krytyczne sp. z o. o.
Dorota Orzeszek - Accessibility Specialist and Senior UX Designer & Researcher. Proponent of disability awareness and universal design. Worked in R&D on designing innovative user interfaces (haptic, voice, multi-modal etc.) for web, mobile, smart TV & IoT. Studied elderly users' mental models of technology in academic research. Worked as a freelance UX & accessibility consultant and lectured UX, accessibility and disability awareness. Currently a Senior UX Researcher and Accessibility Specialist working to improve the accessibility of public services.
In the current information age, data visualizations need accessibility just as any other content type. Whilst we rave over supplying images with alternative text and providing closed captions or audiodescriptions for multimedia, barely anyone seems to consider the accessibility of the ever growing mound of data visualizations in our everyday news feeds. Charts and graphs are a huge accessibility challenge, but obiding by a few simple rules can greatly improve the user experience of many special needs groups - especially the visually impaired and users with cognitive deficits - enhancing the experience for all of us at the same time.