Design Reports for Accessibility
In this tutorial you will learn to design and create compelling reports thereby also designing for accessibility. Therefore, whenever creating a report, no matter who is using it, it is important you should create reports that are usable by as many people as possible, without the need to be adapted for a sort of special design. You will also learn about accessibility features and tools for creating accessible reports in Power BI.
Different Types of Accessibility Features
Power BI provides the capability to create accessible reports, but as the report author, it’s up to you to incorporate them in your reports. There are three categories of accessibility features described in this article:
Built-in accessibility features (no configuration required)
Power BI has accessibility features built into the product, which does not require any configuration from the report author. We shall now define some of the important accessibility features that require no configuration.
| Accessibility features | Description (Without configuration) |
| Keyboard navigation | Power BI visuals are all keyboard navigable and your report consumer can navigate through the data points in visuals, switch between page tabs. As well as have access to interactive capabilities including cross-highlighting, filtering, and slicing. |
| Screen-reader compatibility | In general, every object in Power BI that has keyboard navigation is also compatible for screen readers. Therefore, when a report consumer navigates to a visual, the screen reader will read out the title, visual type, and any alt text if that has been set. |
| High contrast colors view | Power BI has high contrast support for reports. Therefore, if you are using a high contrast mode in Windows, Power BI Desktop automatically detects which high contrast theme is being used in Windows. Thereby, applying those settings to your reports. |
| Focus mode | But if a report consumer is looking at a visual in a dashboard, they can expand the visual to fill up more of their screen by navigating to the context menu of the visual and selecting Open in focus mode. |
| Show data table | Report consumers can also view the data in a visual in a tabular format by pressing Alt+Shift+F11. This table is similar to pressing Show Data in the visual context menu, but it shows a table that is screen reader-friendly. |
Built-in accessibility features (requiring configuration)
| Accessibility features | Description (requiring configuration) |
| Alt text | Alt text (alternative text descriptions) are used to describe the appearance and function of visuals and images on the report page to screen reader users. Providing alt text ensures that consumers of your report understand what you are trying to communicate with a visual, even if they cannot see the visual, image, shape, or textbox. |
| Tab order | For setting the tab order helps keyboard users navigate your report in an order that matches the way users visually process the report visuals. So, if you are including decorative shapes and images in your report, you should remove those from the tab order. Thereby, to set the tab order, select the View tab in the ribbon and select the Selection Pane button to display the Selection pane. |
| Titles & labels | Visual and report page titles are important accessibility features that orient the report consumer. Avoid using acronyms or jargon in your report titles; if you share the report to a new user or someone who is external to your organization, they may not know what your terms or acronyms mean. |
| Markers | One of the best practice to avoid using color (including features conditional formatting) as the only way of conveying information. Alternatively, you can use markers to convey different series. Therefore, for Line, Area, and Combo visuals, as well as for Scatter and Bubble visuals, you can turn markers on, and use a different Marker shape for each line. |
| Report themes | You should ensure that your reports have enough contrast between text and any background colors. WCAG 2.1 success criterion 1.4.3 delineates that text and background color should have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1. There are several tools such as Color Contrast Analyzer, WebAIM, and Accessible Colors you can use to check your report colors. |
| Conditional formatting for alt text | This is one feature that makes Power BI so compelling is that its data is dynamic. Moreover, you can use DAX measures and conditional formatting to create dynamic alt text. Screen readers are then able to call out values specific to the data that a report consumer is viewing. |
Tips and considerations
Some of the important , tips, and considerations to keep in mind when creating reports with accessibility in mind –
- Firstly, understand what your audience wants
- Secondly, keep your report simple and consistent
- Thirdly, test for low vision
- Lastly, report accessibility checklist
For More visit: Desktop Accessibility Creating Reports
