Creating accessible tables and graphs with R

I was recently given the task of improving the accessibility of a statistical report, with the goal of meeting level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. The report contains about 600 pages of tables and graphs in a DOC file. The rule of thumb for tables is to ensure that a visually impaired person can use the tab key to navigate easily across cells in a row from the top left of the table to the bottom right. Additionally, tables and graphs should contain alternative titles and descriptions.

Last year, I produced the report with the Rlogo.jpg packages xtable and R2HTML. James Falkofske notes that hypertext markup language (HTML) files are inherently fluid, allowing readers with a wide range of abilities and assistive technologies to access the content. HTML tables with little or no nesting generally meet the navigation guidelines, even when opened with Word and saved as a word processor document. However, alternative titles and descriptions are not applied to tables and graphs automatically.

It would be very time consuming to retroactively add alternative text to 600 pages of tables and graphs in Word, so I decided to look for ways to modify the defaults in the xtable and R2HTML packages. The example below shows that it’s possible to add alternative text while writing tables and graphs to a HTML file. For tables, the goal is to add title and summary attributes to the <TABLE> tag. Those attributes will show up as alternative text when the HTML file is opened in Word. For graphs, the goal is to add title and “alt” attributes to the <IMG> tag. The graph’s “alt” attribute will carry over to the alternative description field when the HTML file is opened in Word, but the title won’t. However, adding title attributes will allow web browsers to display a float-over title for graphs as well as tables. Try it out by floating your cursor over the table and graph below.

########################################
#Load libraries.
library(xtable) #for tables
library(R2HTML) #for graphs
library(datasets) #for data
########################################
#Initiate a HTML file to export results.
#The file can be named with a DOC extension to facilitate opening it with Word.
name.file.htm <- "Accessible Tables and Graphs.doc"
HTML.title(
"Add alternative titles and descriptions to tables and graphs in a HTML-based DOC file",
file = name.file.htm, HR = 1, append = F)
########################################
#Accessible table example
#Assign alternative title and description to a single object.
html.table.attributes <- paste('border=1',
'title="Table of days of frost and years of life expectancy"',
'summary="Table of days of frost and years of life expectancy"')
#The xtable(caption) argument places the title in the first row of the table, making it
#more difficult to designate table headers to repeat across multiple pages in a document.
#Produce the table title with HTML.title() instead.
HTML.title("Days of frost and years of life expectancy", file = name.file.htm, HR = 3)
#Create table and write to file.
data.frost.exp <- as.data.frame(state.x77[, c("Frost", "Life Exp")])
names(data.frost.exp)[2] <- "Life"
table.xtable <- xtable(data.frost.exp, digits = c(NA, 0, 2))
print(table.xtable, type = "html", html.table.attributes = html.table.attributes,
file = name.file.htm, border = 1, append = T)
HTML("<br>", file = name.file.htm)
########################################
#Accessible graph example
#Modify HTMLInsertGraph() by adding Title and Alt arguments.
HTMLInsertGraph <- function (GraphFileName = "", Caption = "",
Title = "untitled graph", Alt = "a graph",
GraphBorder = 1, Align = "center",
WidthHTML = 500, HeightHTML = NULL,
file = get(".HTML.file"), append = TRUE, ...) {
cat("n", file = file, append = append, ...)
cat(paste("<p align=", Align, "><img src='", GraphFileName,
"' title='", Title, "' alt='", Alt, "' border=", GraphBorder,
if (!is.null(WidthHTML))
paste(" width=", WidthHTML, sep = "")
else "",
if (!is.null(HeightHTML))
paste(" height=", HeightHTML, sep = "")
else "", ">", sep = "", collapse = ""),
file = file, append = TRUE, sep = "")
if (Caption != "")
cat(paste("<br><i class=caption>", Caption, "</i>"),
file = file, append = TRUE, sep = "")
invisible(return(TRUE))
}
#Assign alternative title and description to objects.
Title <- "Graph of days of frost and years of life expectancy"
Alt <- "Graph of days of frost and years of life expectancy"
name.file.plot <- "Days of frost and years of life expectancy.png"
png(name.file.plot, width = 350, height = 350)
plot(data.frost.exp, main = "Days of frost and years of life expectancy", family = "serif")
abline(lm(Life ~ Frost, data.frost.exp), col = "red")
dev.off()
HTMLInsertGraph(GraphFileName = name.file.plot, file = name.file.htm, Align = "left",
WidthHTML = 350, HeightHTML = 350, append = T, Title = Title, Alt = Alt)
HTML("<br>", file = name.file.htm)

Days of frost and years of life expectancy

Frost Life
Alabama 20 69.05
Alaska 152 69.31
Arizona 15 70.55
Arkansas 65 70.66
California 20 71.71
Colorado 166 72.06
Connecticut 139 72.48
Delaware 103 70.06
Florida 11 70.66
Georgia 60 68.54
Hawaii 0 73.60
Idaho 126 71.87
Illinois 127 70.14
Indiana 122 70.88
Iowa 140 72.56
Kansas 114 72.58
Kentucky 95 70.10
Louisiana 12 68.76
Maine 161 70.39
Maryland 101 70.22
Massachusetts 103 71.83
Michigan 125 70.63
Minnesota 160 72.96
Mississippi 50 68.09
Missouri 108 70.69
Montana 155 70.56
Nebraska 139 72.60
Nevada 188 69.03
New Hampshire 174 71.23
New Jersey 115 70.93
New Mexico 120 70.32
New York 82 70.55
North Carolina 80 69.21
North Dakota 186 72.78
Ohio 124 70.82
Oklahoma 82 71.42
Oregon 44 72.13
Pennsylvania 126 70.43
Rhode Island 127 71.90
South Carolina 65 67.96
South Dakota 172 72.08
Tennessee 70 70.11
Texas 35 70.90
Utah 137 72.90
Vermont 168 71.64
Virginia 85 70.08
Washington 32 71.72
West Virginia 100 69.48
Wisconsin 149 72.48
Wyoming 173 70.29


Graph of days of frost and years of life expectancy

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