Making maps accessible

simon gray — 2023-03-01, 02:13:14

How many times have you been to read the Accessibility Statement of a website, and if it’s even mentioned maps, it’s said ‘unfortunately it’s not possible to make maps accessible’?

I was recently asked by a colleague to comment on the accessibility issues of a request by an internal department to put some interactive maps online. It transpired along the way there had been some confusion between the terms ‘access’ and ‘accessibility’, because when I went to look at the content in question in order to form an opinion I couldn’t actually access it anyway, because it was on an external party’s Sharepoint site protected by a login, and it turned out it was that aspect they wanted some help with.

So at the point of my initial reply to the email, without having seen the content, all I was able to respond was - to my shame - ‘because there’s an understanding there’s no real solution to making maps accessible, maps are generally allowed to be exempt from accessibility requirements’. I hopefully redeemed myself with my next sentence by adding ‘however, in many cases something at face value looks like it’s not possible to make it accessible, but with a degree of imagination it’s often possible to make it more accessible than simply not bothering, and the team would want to explore this with you before simply creating a link to your inaccessible maps’.

Map-based input

If the online service in question is a form the purpose of which is for the [...]

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Accessibility

simon gray — 2023-01-30, 10:48:39

Further resources:

• This image on Widgitonline
• Widgit Software themselves
• Dos and don'ts on designing for accessibility by UKGov
• A new accessibility strategy for the GOV.UK Design System by UKGov, and of course the
• Web Content Accessiility Guidelines

#accessibility #localgovweb #localgovdigital

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