evoGraphs — A jQuery plugin to create web accessible graphs

Graphs are considered as one of the most important tools to represent information, and as such, they are widely used across the Internet in various formats to visualize statistics and data. However, for the visually impaired individuals, who can presently rely only on the ALT attribute of images, receiving and interpreting information displayed in graphs is a highly challenging task. This paper presents a novel solution to this problem, called evoGraphs, which is a jQuery plugin that allows users to create fully dynamic, customizable graphs that are easily read by screen readers. In contrast to traditional images, the proposed approach relies on HTML, CSS and jQuery components in order to create graphs while reducing page load time and making the graphs readable by voiceover software applications and screen readers. This paper presents the design and customization of evo-Graphs. Examples are provided to highlight the advantages of the proposed methodology by comparing page load times of traditional image-based graphs with those produced by evoGraphs.