Noisycharts creates an audio version of charts, making dataviz more accessible and available to new audiences.
Noisycharts plugin
There are two parts to this project – the first is an open-source Javascript module that adds an audio accessibility mode to javascript charts. The module is available here, or you can see it running in Guardian Australia’s chart tool here.
Noisycharts Composer
The second part is a web app which allows you to create audiocharts, and animated videos of the charts, with much more control over the parameters used. This includes changing the instruments, duration, tempo, pitch scale, animation style and more.
Noisycharts Composer is very much a work in progress and has a lot of bugs, but you can test it out here, and the GitHub repo is here.
We’re experimenting in using this tool to bring our data reporting to other mediums which don’t often feature charts, like podcasts and video-based social media. We’re also testing it for adding audio accessibility to charts posted to social media.
About the project
Please get in touch – nick.evershed@theguardian.com – if you’re interested in contributing to the project, or would like to go on the mailing list for updates.
The noisycharts project has been developed by Nick Evershed with contributions from members of the Guardian’s Australian data and interactive team.
We are also extremely appreciative of members of the blind and vision impaired community who have helped to test the accessibility plugin.
Nick Evershed 