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Add a chart to your accessible design

Add a chart to your accessible design

Learn how to add a chart to your design and use different styling and labels to ensure that the data in your chart is clear and accessible.
Renée Meloche avatar
Written by Renée Meloche. Updated over a week ago
Available on the following Venngage subscription plans: Premium, Business and Enterprise.

Add and customize charts in your accessible design with the following steps:

Create a chart

Select or click on "Charts" in the left sidebar to add a chart or table to the design canvas.

A user clicks on the "Charts" menu in the left sidebar in the upgraded Venngage Editor and clicks on a donut pie chart, which appears on the design canvas.

Choose from:

  • basic tables

  • pie charts

  • column and stacked column charts

  • bar and stacked bar charts

  • line charts

  • area and stacked area charts

A user clicks on the "Charts"

Resize the chart to fit the area on your design canvas you want to fill.

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Add data to a chart

Select the chart.

Click the "Data" tab in the "Edit Chart" panel that comes up on the right side, overlaying the design canvas.

With a pie chart selected on a design canvas in the upgraded Venngage Editor, a user clicks the "Data" tab in the "Edit Chart" panel overlaying the right side of the canvas. The user types a new number into several of the data cells in the chart under the "Data" tab, changing the size of the segments of the pie chart.

Type or paste values into the spreadsheet; the chart will update automatically on the design canvas.

Change the color of the Legend with the color picker square under the "Legend" heading in the "Setup" tab of the "Edit Chart" panel. You can also toggle the legend on and off to display or remove it.

A user toggles the legend on and off to change the chart display on the design canvas.

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Change chart colors

Open the "Chart Style" heading in the "Setup" tab of the "Edit Chart" panel.

Use the color picker square next to each data category to change the color that data will be displayed with on the chart.

A user clicks the color picker square next to several data categories in the "Setup" tab of the "Edit Chart" panel in the Venngage editor. Using the color picker, they change the colors.

The Contrast Ratio at the bottom of the color picker menu will automatically display whether the color meets color contrast ratio guidelines.

Use the color picker next to any element of the chart under "Setup" to change its colors.

A user clicks on the "Grid Lines" heading under the Setup tab in the Edit Chart panel and changes the grid lines from light to dark in the background of a column chart.

Colors and other design elements help make data and charts more accessible to visually impaired readers or readers with other accommodation needs.

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Add alt text to your chart

Select the chart.

Click or select the "Alt Text" button in the top toolbar to open the "Add Alt Text" modal (box) and enter descriptive text for your chart. Click "Save" when you're done.

A user clicks on a line chart on a design canvas in the Venngage Editor. When the chart is selected, the user clicks "Alt text" in the top toolbar and enters descriptive text into the text field of the "Add Alt Text" modal (box) that pops up, then clicks "Save", closing the modal box.

Writing descriptive text for complex non-text elements like charts can be daunting because they contain a lot of information. Learn more about writing long and short alt text for complex elements in designs.

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