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Effective Practices for Description of Science Content within Digital Talking Books
Example A: Bar Charts

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1. Bar Chart - Vertical
2. Bar Chart - Horizontal





Bar Chart - Vertical


bar chart

Guidelines:


  • Bar charts should be converted into accessible tables.
  • Briefly describe the chart and give a summary if one is immediately apparent.
  • Provide the title and axis labels.
  • It is not necessary to describe the visual attributes of the bars, e.g. dark blue, light blue, unless there is an explicit need such as an exam question referring to the colors.

Description:


Figure 1 is a bar chart that measures percentage of vaccination coverage in five states over one year, from Q3 2006 to Q2 2007. In each state, the coverage increases over time.

The data are summarized in the following table. All data are approximate.

First dose rotavirus vaccination coverage among children aged 3 months, by quarter - immunization information system (IIS) sentinel sites, United States, 2006-2007.

Arizona District of Columbia Michigan Minnesota Montana Oregon
Q3 2006 35% 10% 5% 0% 15% 20%
Q4 2006 45% 30% 33% 25% 27% 27%
Q1 2007 50% 45% 42% 35% 37% 45%
Q2 2007 65% 48% 50% 41% 40% 44%


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Bar Chart - Horizontal


Title: How people who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind or have low vision are alerted to emergencies.

bar chart

Guidelines:


  • While most bar charts should be converted into accessible tables, this simple chart can be presented as text in a list.
  • Provide the title and labels.
  • It is not necessary to describe the visual attributes of the bars unless there is an explicit need.


Description:


The figure is a bar chart that has been converted into the following table. All data are approximate.

How people who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind or have low vision are alerted to emergencies.
Response deaf/hard of hearing blind/low vision
Don't Know 70 79
Friend 59 62
Family 65 64
Co-worker 33 38
TV 102 65
Radio 30 80
Email 36 5
Web 16 4
Landline Phone 25 53
Cellphone 8 11
Pager 17 10
Smartphone/PDA 18 8
TTY 47 0
Video relay service 4 0
Phone relay service 8 0
Other 7 9


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Funding for this project is provided by the National Science Foundation.