SAS Visual Analytics 8.5: Accessibility Features

• Overview
• Choosing the Right Report Viewer for You
• Recommended Configuration
• Limited Vision
  • Selecting the High Contrast Theme
  • Report Theme Override
  • Accessibility Settings for Limited Vision
• Without Vision
  • Description of User Interface
  • Accessibility Settings to Optimize Screen Reader Usage
  • Disabling the JAWS Virtual PC Cursor
  • SAS Graphics Accelerator
  • Printing Reports with Accessibility Tags
• Mobility
  • Accessibility Settings for Mobility
  • Accessing Product-Specific Landmarks
  • Keyboard Shortcuts
  • Troubleshooting Keyboard Shortcuts
• Hearing
• Contact Us

Overview

SAS is committed to providing accessible software, documentation, training, and support materials through the ongoing evolution of our products and internal processes.

SAS adopted the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0 level AA as our internal accessibility standard for all software, documentation, training and support materials. We have appointed a Director of Accessibility and established a centralized accessibility team that is charged with implementing the internal accessibility standard. The centralized accessibility team includes accessibility subject matter experts from a variety of disciplines including user experience design, visual design, computer science, quality assurance, and project management. Several members of the team have disabilities. For detailed information about the accessibility of this product, email accessibility@sas.com or contact SAS Technical Support.

Users who cannot use a mouse can view reports, create reports, edit reports, and explore data using the keyboard alone.

Using SAS Visual Analytics with a screen reader is fully supported for viewing reports. Editing reports with a screen reader is supported with some limitations.

Choosing the Right Report Viewer for You

SAS provides the following report viewers:

• SAS Visual Analytics App for Android
• SAS Visual Analytics App for iOS
• SAS Visual Analytics App for Windows 10
• SAS Visual Analytics (the report viewing interface of the SAS Visual Analytics web application)

The type of accessibility support that is provided by each report viewer varies. Each report viewer has particular strengths. Depending on the type of support that you require, you might prefer one report viewer over the others.

When viewing reports, SAS Visual Analytics is good for the following types of users:

• Screen reader users. By using a screen reader, people without functional vision can explore the contents of reports and access individual data elements. SAS Visual Analytics connects with SAS Graphics Accelerator, which enables you to explore data by using advanced, interactive sonification. For more information, see SAS Graphics Accelerator.
• Keyboard-only users. Users can access the application with the keyboard without needing to use a mouse. SAS Visual Analytics supports optional accessibility settings that enable you to customize the look of the keyboard focus indicator and access tooltips by using the keyboard. At the time of publication, viewing SAS Visual Analytics reports in the SAS Visual Analytics web application is the best choice for keyboard-only users.
• Users with low vision. SAS Visual Analytics supports browser-based zoom, enabling users to increase the size of text and graphics on screen by up to 200%. The application supports a high contrast theme – both for report contents and for the report viewer user interface. Users who prefer a high contrast theme can choose to display all reports in this theme.
• Users who prefer to avoid animation. SAS Visual Analytics includes minimal animation. Animation can be disabled by using accessibility settings.

For more information about the accessibility features of the other report viewers, see the following documents:

• SAS Visual Analytics App for iOS: Accessibility Features
• SAS Visual Analytics App for Android: Accessibility Features
• SAS Visual Analytics App for Windows 10: Accessibility Features

Recommended Configuration

This product works with a variety of operating systems, browsers, and screen readers. However, we recommend the following software for a better experience when using our product with a screen reader:

• Use Google Chrome as your browser.
• On Microsoft Windows, use the latest version of JAWS.
• On MacOS, use VoiceOver.

Limited Vision

Selecting the High Contrast Theme

You can change the appearance of the web applications by using the Theme setting. The theme specifies the collection of colors, graphics, and fonts that appear in the application. We recommend trying the High Contrast theme. This theme uses a black background with bright foreground colors to achieve high contrast.

To change to the High Contrast theme:

1. Click the user button in the application toolbar to access the application options menu.
2. Click Settings.
3. Navigate to the General page, which is in the Global section.
4. For the Theme option, select Choose a theme.
5. Select the High Contrast theme.

Report Theme Override

You can override report themes to use the high contrast theme for report contents.

To enable the high contrast override:

• Select your name in the application bar and select Settings.
• Expand the SAS Visual Analytics heading, and then navigate to the Themes section.
• Select Override the report theme and use the SAS High Contrast report theme.

Accessibility Settings for Limited Vision

There are several settings in the Accessibility section that can also be used to improve your experience.

To change these settings:

1. Click the user button in the application toolbar to access the application options menu.
2. Click Settings.
3. Navigate to the Accessibility page, which is in the Global section.
4. Update the settings that you are interested in.

The following settings for limited vision are available from this page:

• To turn off animation, deselect Enable visual effects. Turning off this option suppresses the subtle movement and animation that is used to emphasize changes in state in the interface.
• Select Adjust the display duration for pop-up notifications to specify how long temporary pop-up notification messages are displayed. Increasing the amount of time that notifications are displayed can help users discover and read messages that disappear automatically.
• Select Invert application colors to make the user interface easier to see for users with sensitivity to certain bright colors (for example, a black-on-white display). You can also use the Ctrl+` (Ctrl+back quote) keyboard shortcut to invert the application colors.
• The focus indicator is an outline that indicates which user interface component is active. You can make the focus indicator easier to see by selecting Customize the focus indicator settings and adjusting the color, thickness, and opacity.

Without Vision

Description of User Interface

The SAS Visual Analytics application window contains four main elements:

• The banner contains a side menu, a search field, notifications, and a user button. Click the user button to access your recent items, the Help Center, and application options such as themes, user locale, and accessibility settings. The side menu enables you to navigate through the product. Open the side menu and click the links contained within it to access different parts of the user interface. Use the Share and Collaborate link in the side menu to access SAS Drive. In some cases, the remaining links are preceded by text that helps categorize the links listed after it.
• The toolbar enables you to select report pages, and also contains buttons that switch between viewing and editing your report, refresh your data (if auto-refresh is disabled), maximize your report (if you are viewing a report), expand the side pane (if you are viewing a report), undo and redo your changes, and save your report.

  The toolbar also contains the main menu for SAS Visual Analytics. The main menu enables you to perform basic tasks for reports such as saving, opening, and creating a new report.

• The side panes enable you to modify the contents and properties of your report. When you are editing a report, there are two side panes. When you are viewing a report, there is one side pane.
• The canvas is the workspace that contains your report content.

You can navigate using landmarks. For more information, see Accessing Product-Specific Landmarks.

For a list of keyboard shortcuts, see Keyboard Shortcuts.

Accessibility Settings to Optimize Screen Reader Usage

In the Accessibility section, you can use the Enable sounds option to improve your experience.

1. Click the user button in the application toolbar to access the application options menu.
2. Click Settings.
3. Navigate to the Accessibility page, which is located in the Global section.
4. Select Enable sounds to enable audio indicators for some events that occur within the user interface. For example, you hear a sound for the loading screen.
   Note: Changes take effect after you sign out and sign back in.

Disabling the JAWS Virtual PC Cursor

This product is a Rich Internet Application that contains many highly interactive widgets. JAWS users should press Insert+Z to turn off the JAWS Virtual PC cursor by default. This strategy enables JAWS users to quickly use keyboard shortcuts to move focus around the application window, explore the content of report objects, and so on. Turning off the JAWS Virtual PC cursor also helps JAWS users avoid potential confusion that can occur when trying to access complex HTML5 widgets.

SAS Graphics Accelerator

What Is SAS Graphics Accelerator?

SAS Graphics Accelerator is a free Google Chrome extension that enables users with visual impairments or blindness to explore data visualizations. It supports alternative presentations of data visualizations that include enhanced visual rendering, text descriptions, tabular data, and interactive sonification. Sonification uses non-speech audio to convey important information about the graph.

Installation

For information about installing SAS Graphics Accelerator, see http://support.sas.com/software/products/graphics-accelerator/index.html.

Supported Object Types

The following object types support SAS Graphics Accelerator:

• bar chart
• bubble plot
• line chart
• time series plot
• pie chart
• scatter plot

View an Object with SAS Graphics Accelerator

To view an object with SAS Graphics Accelerator, select for the object, and then select View with SAS Graphics Accelerator.

SAS Graphics Accelerator displays the object in a new Google Chrome tab.

The SAS Graphics Accelerator tab contains a link to the SAS Graphics Accelerator: User’s Guide.

Printing Reports with Accessibility Tags

When you print a report as a PDF document, you can create a tagged PDF file by selecting the Include accessibility tags option. Tagged PDF documents contain accessibility markup that optimizes the reading experience for users who use screen readers or other assistive technology.

Mobility

Accessibility Settings for Mobility

There are several settings in the Accessibility section that can also be used to improve your experience.

To change these settings:

1. Click the user button in the application toolbar to access the application options menu.
2. Click Settings.
3. Navigate to the Accessibility page, which is located in the Global section.
4. Update the settings that you are interested in.
   • Select Display tooltips when using the keyboard to navigate to enable keyboard users to access tooltips. When this option is selected, putting keyboard focus on a control also displays the tooltip on the screen. You can also select the location in the browser window to display the tooltip. By default, the tooltip is displayed in the bottom right corner of the browser window.
   • The focus indicator is an outline that indicates which user interface component is active. You can make the focus indicator easier to see by selecting Customize the focus indicator settings and adjusting the color, thickness, and opacity.

Accessing Product-Specific Landmarks

Landmarks are references to the primary areas of an application’s user interface. They provide a quick and easy way for keyboard users to navigate to these areas of the application.

To access the list of landmarks that are available for a specific context, press Ctrl+F6 (or cmd+F6) to open the Landmarks window. Use the arrow keys to select a landmark, and then press Enter to navigate to that area of the application.

Keyboard Shortcuts

The following keyboard shortcuts are supported in this product.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Keyboard Shortcut
Open the pop-up menu	Shift+F10
Invert application colors	Ctrl+`
Open	Ctrl+O
Save	Ctrl+S
Undo	Ctrl+Z
Redo	Ctrl+Y
Zoom in	Ctrl+plus sign
Zoom out	Ctrl+minus sign
Reset the zoom state	Ctrl+0
Show landmarks	Ctrl+F6
Display keyboard shortcuts	Ctrl+F9
Print	Ctrl+P
Move to the next page	Alt+Page Down
Move to the previous page	Alt+Page Up

Shortcuts for Editing Reports

Action	Keyboard Shortcut
Create a new page (within a report)	Ctrl+M
Duplicate the selected object	Ctrl+D
Delete the selected object or page	Delete
Move the page to the left (when the page tab has keyboard focus)	Shift+left arrow
Move the page to the right (when the page tab has keyboard focus)	Shift+right arrow
Toggle auto-refresh	Ctrl+Shift+U
Edit a title or the contents of a text object (June 2021 Update)	F2
Stop editing a title or a text object (June 2021 Update)	Tab or Shift+Tab
Select the toolbar while editing a title or the contents of a text object (June 2021 Update)	Alt+F10
Resize a column in a list table or a crosstab (when the column heading has keyboard focus) (June 2021 Update)	Alt+left arrow or Alt+right arrow

Shortcuts for Graph Objects

Action	Keyboard Shortcut
Pan up in the viewport	X+up arrow
Pan down in the viewport	X+down arrow
Pan right in the viewport	X+right arrow
Pan left in the viewport	X+left arrow
Toggle selection of an item within a graph	Ctrl+spacebar
Move focus to the next graph on the page	Tab
Move focus to the previous graph on the page	Shift+Tab
Move focus forward within a graph	right arrow
Move focus backward within a graph	left arrow
Select the current item that is in focus	spacebar
Move focus to the first selectable item within a graph	Home
Move focus to the last selectable item within a graph	End
Follow a link	Enter
Drill into a hierarchy	Enter
Move focus to the next group or response in a graph (June 2021 Update)	G
Move focus to the previous group or response in a graph (June 2021 Update)	Shift+G
Move focus to the next layer in a graph (June 2021 Update)	E
Move focus to the previous layer in a graph (June 2021 Update)	Shift+E
Move focus within a gridded layout (June 2021 Update)	A+arrow keys

Shortcuts for Tables

Action	Keyboard Shortcut
Quickly move focus up	Page Up
Quickly move focus down	Page Down
Move focus to the start of a table row	Home
Move focus to the end of a table row	End
Move focus to the top of a table	Ctrl+Home
Move focus to the bottom of a table	Ctrl+End
Follow a link	Enter

Shortcuts for Playing Reports

Action	Keyboard Shortcut
Pause	Space
Go to next object	Right arrow
Go to previous object	Left arrow
Exit playback	Esc

Troubleshooting Keyboard Shortcuts

Your shortcut keys might not work as expected due to the following reasons:

• The keyboard shortcut might be reserved for use by your browser.
• Your keyboard is not a standard U.S. keyboard and therefore some of the keyboard shortcuts are not supported.
• Your web browser is not supported or needs to be upgraded.
• Some shortcut keys might conflict with the shortcut keys of the Input Method Editor (IME). You can modify the IME shortcut.

Hearing

All short-form English language external SAS videos are captioned as part of the standard video publishing process along with select longer-form videos. This includes both technical and marketing videos that are published to the SAS Software and SAS Users channel on YouTube and videos published to SAS web properties. Longer-form videos that are not captioned as part of the standard process can be captioned upon request.

Contact Us

Email us at accessibility@sas.com if you need this document in an alternative digital format, or if you have any questions about the accessibility of SAS products. For more information about the accessibility of SAS products, visit www.sas.com/accessibility.