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A Diagram Must Never Be Ten Thousand Words: Text-Based (Sentential) Approaches to Diagrams Accessibility Limit Users’ Potential for Normative Agency

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Diagrammatic Representation and Inference (Diagrams 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 13462))

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Abstract

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) require digital diagrams to be tagged with screen readable text descriptions for access by blind and partially sighted individuals (BPSI). The aim of these guidelines is to comply with human rights-based accessibility legislation, which aims to preserve the normative agency of BPSI (the ability to reflect on, evaluate and act upon a conception of what constitutes a worthwhile life for themselves). However, theories from the Diagrams community suggest that text and diagrams offer distinctly different constraints. For example, Shimojima’s Constraint Hypothesis (the relationship of structural constraints to target problem constraints in a mode of representation establish the variance of inferential potential) and the interrelated free ride phenomenon (additional inferences can be made in a representation if the relationship of constraints is a good match). Therefore, a guideline that requires the text description of a diagram (such as via the WCAG) might limit the normative agency diagram users who are BPSI. Despite the apparent necessity of providing non-visual alternatives of diagrammatic properties for accessibility, they are rarely explored or developed sufficiently to be consistently provided to BPSI. Thus, we argue that the affordances of diagrammatic representations provide possibilities for normative agency that are lost if not represented non-visually in diagrams designed for accessibility.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Perceptual Artifacts Lab, OCAD University, Toronto, ON, M5T 1W1, Canada

    David Barter & Peter Coppin

  2. Inclusive Design Program, OCAD University, Toronto, ON, M5T 1W1, Canada

    David Barter & Peter Coppin

  3. Faculty of Design, OCAD University, Toronto, ON, M5T 1W1, Canada

    Peter Coppin

Authors
  1. David Barter
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  2. Peter Coppin
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Correspondence to David Barter .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. CNRS, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France

    Valeria Giardino

  2. Lancaster University in Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Sven Linker

  3. West Chester University, West Chester, PA, USA

    Richard Burns

  4. Universitá di Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Francesco Bellucci

  5. Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France

    Jean-Michel Boucheix

  6. Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, Brazil

    Petrucio Viana

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Barter, D., Coppin, P. (2022). A Diagram Must Never Be Ten Thousand Words: Text-Based (Sentential) Approaches to Diagrams Accessibility Limit Users’ Potential for Normative Agency. In: Giardino, V., Linker, S., Burns, R., Bellucci, F., Boucheix, JM., Viana, P. (eds) Diagrammatic Representation and Inference. Diagrams 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13462. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15146-0_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15146-0_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-15145-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-15146-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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