We don’t talk about inclusive design nearly enough in the Power BI community. I was trying to recall the last time I saw a demo report (from Microsoft or the community) that looked like consideration was made for basic accessibility, and… it’s a pretty rare occurrence.
Part of the reason for this might be that accessibility was added into Power BI after the fact, with keyboard accessible visual interactions being added in 2019 as one of the last big accessibility improvements. But I think the more likely reasons are that inclusive design requires empathy and understanding of how to build reports for people who work differently than ourselves, and Power BI accessibility features take time and effort to implement. While we can never make our reports 100% accessible for everyone, that doesn’t mean we should just not try for anyone.
Population statistics tell us that many of our colleagues have or will have a disability at some point, and many of them will be invisible. So even if you don’t see a report consumer with an obvious disability today, that doesn’t mean an existing user won’t acquire a disability or a new user with a disability won’t come along as people change roles in an organization. In addition to the permanent disabilities we normally think of, there are also temporary and situational disabilities that we should try to accommodate.
In order to start designing more inclusively, we need to increase conversation around accessibility requirements and standards for our reports. I fully understand that it can feel tedious or confusing as you get started. I hope that as Power BI matures, the accessibility features will mature as well to make it even easier to create a more accessible report by default. For now, the only way to make accessible Power BI report design easier for report creators is for us to start forming accessible design habits and to offer feedback to the Power BI team along the way.
My Accessible Report Design Proposal
This is what I would like to see from report creators in the community as well as within Microsoft. I’ll define what I mean by accessible report design in the next section.
- Before publishing a report, implement accessible design techniques as thoroughly as possible.
- For demonstrations of report design/UI techniques where you are providing a finished product at the end, implement accessible design techniques as thoroughly as possible.
- For demonstrations of things that are not inherently visual, implement bare minimum accessibility or add a disclaimer to the report.
Example: “Here’s a cool DAX technique that I just threw into a quick table or bar chart to show you the results. It hasn’t been cleaned up and made accessible (alt text, color contrast, etc.), but I would do that before publishing.”
- For demonstrations of report design/UI techniques where you show only part of the process, implement bare minimum accessibility or add a disclaimer to the report.
Example: “This is the part of the report creation process about creating bookmarks, and before I publish to an audience, I want to make sure I’m following good design practices including accessibility.”
Power BI Report Accessibility
I have a full list of things to check here. That is the checklist that I use to ensure my report designs are generally accessible, when I have no specific compliance requirements or knowledge or any specific disabilities that need to be accommodated. In my opinion, this is what we should be doing in all of our reports because we want everyone in our intended audience to be able use our reports. You’ll find a very similar checklist on Microsoft Docs.
If you need to start smaller, you can go with my bare minimum accessibility and work your way up to the full list.
Bare Minimum Accessibility
This is the short list of the most impactful (according to me) accessibility changes you can make in your report. Use this because you have to start somewhere, but realize there is more we should be doing.
- Ensure text and visual components have sufficient color contrast
- Use descriptive, purposeful chart titles
- Avoid using color as the only means of conveying information
- Set tab order on all visuals in each page
- Remove unnecessary jargon and acronyms from all charts
Give It a Try
I just learned that the Power BI Community Featured Data Stories Gallery theme for September is Accessibility. So here’s your chance to win a free t-shirt and internet bragging rights by showing off your accessible design skills. You need to submit your report to the Data Stories Gallery by September 30th in order for your submission to be considered. But a well designed, accessible Power BI report added to the gallery is appreciated any time of year!