‘Communicating data with Colour’ is an aid for graphic designers, cartographers and others who are required to use colour to convey visual information in an accessible way.
Colour blindness affects 8% of men (1 in 12) and up to 1% of women. Colour accessibility ensures that visual information is legible for people with colour blindness.
Victorian Government policy requires that from May 2011, maps and visual data created for public distribution by graphic designers, urban designers, cartographers, researchers, publishers and intranet/internet content managers should be made colour accessible.
In cases where the complexity of the map or visual data prevents it from being fully colour accessible, an equivalent, accessible alternative needs to be created in a similar format, and this should be included in the same publication or website.
The international web accessibility standard, W3C WCAG 2.0, requires that colour not be used to convey visual information to ensure access for people who are blind or vision impaired.
The Victorian Government has recognised, however, that some pieces of visual information, such as maps and graphs, often require the use of colour, and should therefore be made accessible to people with colour blindness.
The guidelines include comparative examples of how people who have colour blindness may perceive visual information, and practical suggestions for improving accessibility. Some easy improvements suggested include:
- Annotating or labelling information which uses colour to convey meaning
- Using appropriate styles and formatting (such as size and patterns) to convey meaning
- Using non-ambiguous colour combinations (not using colours which are close together on the colour palette)
Visit our page on Australian Governments’ web accessibility policy for information on other states and territories.
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