Accessibility

This applies to: Managed Dashboards, Managed Reports

When you create content, take advantage of built-in and available accessibility and design features to ensure as many people as possible can access it.

Content such as dashboards and reports in view mode or embedded in your own application can be made accessible for all users. Upgrade to the latest version of Symphony to receive the full benefit of accessibility updates such as keyboard support and screen reader compatibility for filters and components. Guidelines and information about accessible names are included here to help you design with accessibility in mind.

Guidelines

Your organization may require an accessible version of content that meets standards such as WCAG 2.1, and meet the criteria labeled as conformance levels A and AA.

See the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and how to meet their criteria when designing your content and deciding on how to provide functionality.

Some examples for meeting specific criteria include:

1.4.1 Use of Color: Include an alternative way to convey information besides color hues. For example, choose colors that also have different lightness/brightness with at least a 3:1 contrast ratio if the color differences are meaningful or required to distinguish between data points, or to label items directly. More options include using different marker/symbol shapes or using the Hatching option.
1.4.10 Reflow: An option that may work for your organization is to use a responsive layout or add a responsive version of the content (unless a two-dimensional layout is required for usage or meaning).
2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide: if you have a visualization that automatically refreshes, you may need to provide a way to customize or disable the refresh interval.

Accessible Names

You can include accessible names to provide more information in multiple ways. These can include:

Non-text content like charts, or icon buttons without text, should have an accessible name or short description set up to identify it to screen reader users. Unless this text would be a sufficient alternative for non-text content, there should also be a long description such as a table version of the data or a data label conveying the same data, and if necessary you could include instructions for where to find this in your short description (see Situation B in Understanding Success Criterion 1.1.1).
Some input controls such as filters already contain a built-in label that is both displayed visually and accessible to screen reader users, but Drop Down List and Radio Buttons components should have a label component added and associated with it.
Any type of content that already has a visible title should have it associated as its accessible name. For example, a table visualization is already made up of text accessible to screen readers but you can associate it with its title.

Add or associate an accessible name by setting ARIA Label in the text properties of the Properties window:

Enter an accessible name in the textbox. For example, for non-text content like a chart, you could provide a short description like Current Month Sales Chart.
If the current item already has a visible title provided by a label component or data label, choose it from the dropdown to associate them together for screen reader users.

Decorative images and other non-interactive elements that don't convey meaning should not have an ARIA label because they should be ignored by screen readers. Hyperlinks and buttons that display text are already accessible to screen readers and normally should not be given an ARIA label.

Keyboard Interactivity

In Symphony v25.2 and later, access to functionality by keyboard has expanded. This is enabled by default for new content but disabled by default for content upgraded from an earlier version to ensure compatibility.

You can optionally enable the following options for content created in earlier versions, or disable them if unnecessary in some scenarios.

Interactive Tables

Table visualizations have full keyboard support for navigation of cells, selection of one or more rows or columns, and cell widgets.

In the Design tab of the Properties window, find the Keyboard Selection option in the Animation & Interaction category. If enabled, viewers can:

Use the Tab key to navigate to one of the table's cells and then use arrow or other keys to navigate between cells consistent with the grid ARIA role. If tooltips are enabled, they will appear when the cell is focused.
Use the Space key to select the current row, or the current column if a column header is focused (the Enter key can also be used if the cell contains no other interactive features).
Select multiple rows or columns by holding the Ctrl, ⌘, or Shift keys while pressing the Space key the same as when clicking, or holding Shift while using the arrow keys to expand the current selection.
Press Enter on cells containing an expand/collapse button to trigger it, or on column headers to access options such as sorting and filtering if enabled for that table (press Enter again or Escape to return to table navigation after navigating inside a column header).

Selecting rows and columns triggers any actions added to the table for Selected Data Changed such as a filter action.

If a table is not meant to be interactive and users do not need any of the above interactivity regardless of their input device, you may prefer to disable the keyboard selection option. It will still be accessible for screen reader users to navigate between cells and read their contents as a good alternative to non-text content like charts.

Note: Some table visualizations may be identified to screen readers as containing both a Row Headers table and a Data Cells table if it contains row headers that can be displayed frozen on the left over other columns. If preferred, you can select the Frozen property option for all cell columns or re-visualize to a Flat Table of only regular cell columns to identify all cells as a single table.

Showing Tooltips on Focus

To make the contents of tooltips accessible to keyboard users, ensure the Open Tooltip On Focus option is selected for keyboard focusable controls such as filters and buttons. (Tooltips will continue opening after a delay for mouse users according to the Tooltip Delay property.)

This option is found in the Properties window's Design tab in the Animation & Interaction category for applicable controls.