Accessibility Improvements Added by Release


Note: To see all the features added by Tableau by release, use the Tableau Release Navigator.

Accessibility improvements added in Tableau 25.3

Alt text for filters

Authors can provide context on what a filter changes about a dashboard or visualisation to people using screen readers.

To add alt text to a filter:

  1. From the toolbar, select Worksheet, then Accessibility.

  2. From the Filter Alt Text dropdown, choose the desired filter.

  3. Enter the alt text in the provided box.

  4. Select OK.

Screen reader announcement selection

Tableau Cloud, Tableau Server and Tableau Public authors can now customise how assistive technology announces marks in a visualisation. They can choose to use either mark metadata or mark tooltips for these announcements. By default, screen readers announce mark metadata, a decision we made because not all visualisations include tooltips.

To choose mark tooltips for screen reader announcements:

  1. From the toolbar, select Worksheet, then Accessibility.

  2. Tick the Use mark tooltip for alt text on marks box.

  3. Select OK.

    Accessibility dialog box with callouts for adding alt text for filters (1) and using mark tooltips for alt text on marks (2).
    (1) Use alt text for filters.

    (2) Change screen reader announcement selection.

Accessibility improvements added in Tableau 25.1

Take actions in visualisations

Users can now keep, exclude and sort data in a tooltip. They can also select and highlight marks on a viz without a mouse.

The ability to take actions in a visualisation without a mouse makes it possible for more people to explore, understand and act on their data. Using the Space, Enter and Arrow keys, you can keep, exclude and highlight specific marks.

Using a keyboard to navigate a mark where you can choose to keep only or exclude a mark.

Data model accessibility

With this update, users can use their keyboard to move among tables and related fields in the Tableau relationship data model with the Arrow keys and the Tab key. A screen reader will read out information in tooltips and information about the tables you selected. For relationships, the screen reader will provide context. It tells you which tables to navigate to, depending on the table origin of the relationship.

Using a keyboard to move through tables and fields in a Tableau relationship data model.

Accessibility Settings: Customise when informational alerts are automatically dismissed

By default, alerts used to provide non-critical information are automatically dismissed after five seconds. With this update, you can change the setting to increase the time to automatically dismiss or not automatically dismiss non-critical alerts.

Accessibility setting in Tableau Cloud allowing a user to opt not to automatically dismiss non-critical alerts.

  • To change this setting, go to My Account Settings in Tableau Cloud.

  • Select the Settings tab and navigate to the Accessibility section.

  • Tick or untick the box to automatically dismiss non-critical alerts.

  • Use the arrow keys to increase or decrease the time to dismiss non-critical alerts.

Accessibility improvements added in Tableau 24.3

Viz navigation: all online visualisation types

Users can now navigate Marks on all online visualisation types on Tableau Cloud using a keyboard and other assistive technologies.

To activate the experience, navigate to a visualisation and press Enter.

  1. Select Enter again to navigate the Marks.

  2. Use the Arrow keys to navigate between headers, columns and rows.

If your visualisation has a dual axis, or if it’s a scatter plot or map, an additional navigation affordance appears. Use the Arrow keys to move the focus to a group of marks and select Enter to navigate the marks in the group.

  1. To navigate out of the text table, press Esc.

Accessibility improvements added in Tableau 24.2

Viz navigation: all linear visualisations

Users can now navigate marks using anything other than a mouse to navigate visualisations, including bar and line charts, combo charts, heat maps and more. Visualisations not included are scatterplots and maps. A customer using a screen reader will hear the information for each tooltip.

Linear visualisations follow a natural reading order, such as a line graph.

A linear visualisation of a line graph.

Non-linear visualisations don't follow a natural reading order, such as a scatterplot.

A non-linear visualisation of a scatterplot.

To activate the experience, simply navigate to a text table.

  1. Select Enter to access the visualisation.

  2. Select Enter again to navigate the marks.

  3. From there, use the Arrow keys to navigate between the columns, rows and headers.

Accessibility improvements added in Tableau 24.1

Viz navigation: text tables

Users can now use only a keyboard and assistive technology to navigate the marks of a text table. A customer using a screen reader will hear the information for each tooltip.

To activate the experience, simply navigate to a text table in the beta.

  1. Select Enter to access the visualisation.

  2. Select Enter again to navigate the marks.

  3. From there, use the arrow keys to navigate between the columns, rows and headers.

We updated the View Data experience to be launched using Shift + Enter.

Accessibility improvements added in Tableau 23.3

Editable alt text

Users now have three ingress points for editing alternative text “alt text” on Cloud and Server. This includes a viz context menu on a dashboard in addition to the worksheet and Data Guide.

A viz context menu accessed on a dashboard with the Accessibility menu item selected.

This feature is now available on Tableau Desktop, including all three ingress points.

Alt text only impacts visualisations rendered online.

Accessibility improvements added in Tableau 23.2

Card Accessibility Improvements

We moved content metadata to a pop-over widget to make it easier to discover. We also added full keyboard navigation (including selection and batch actions) to the grid view. These actions are now available in the mobile browser. We fixed the focus indicator to enable customers to confidently navigate through content.

Editable alt text

Users can now edit the auto-generated alternative text or “alt text” on Tableau Cloud and Server. This can be done through the Data Guide and the Worksheet menu.

Edit alt text dialog box accessed through the Data Guide.

Accessibility improvements added in Tableau 23.1

Auto-generated alternative text

Visualisations now have automatically generated alternative text for customers using screen readers. The alternative text is generated from a formula including the title, visualisation type and information about the columns and rows for all interactive visualisations on the web.

Left Feature Navigation

We removed duplication of labels and added context.

Accessibility improvements added in Tableau 22.4

We replaced complex URLs on thumbnail cards with the name of the content. For example, instead of a screen reader reading "https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-gb/accessibility_dashboards.htm", it will read "Build Accessible Dashboards".

Accessibility improvements added in Tableau 21.3

Keyboard navigation order

We updated the default navigation for visualisations to generally move from left to right and top to bottom. We also added a manual process for updating the tab order. See this help document for instructions.

High-contrast colour palettes

We added high-contrast colour palettes for visualisations.

Edit colours dialog with the Colour Blind palette selected.

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