GIS accessibility resources

GIS accessibility resources

Resources to help you on your GIS accessibility journey.

General digital accessibility information

• Digital Accessibility in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II Digital Accessibility Information
• Introduction to web accessibility from W3 (World Wide Web Consortium)
• The beginner's guide to web accessibility from Deque
• A11y and a brief numeronyms primer from The A11y Project

Resources from Esri

Web Map best practices blog posts

• Accessibility design principles
• Add emphasis by highlighting your area of interest
• Add emphasis to our map using your data values
• Designing maps for colorblind readability
• Creating accessible PDFs in ArcGIS Pro

Using Blend Modes

• Use blend modes document
• Blend modes blog post, 2020
• Blend mode helper blog post, 2023

Pop-up configuration blog posts

• Pop-ups: the essentials
• Pop-ups: Arcade essentials
• Pop-ups: chart element essentials

StoryMaps blog posts

• Getting Started with StoryMap Accessibility
• Writing Accessible ArcGIS StoryMaps content
• Using Alternative Text for Equitable Storytelling

Experience Builder blog posts

• Accessibility best practices for ArcGIS Experience Builder
• Get started with Accessibility: Widgets

Dashboard blog posts

• Improving the accessibility of your Dashboard
• Accessibility in ArcGIS Dashboards
• Dashboards that Pop: Accessibility
• Navigating ArcGIS Dashboards with a Keyboard
• ArcGIS Dashboards Conformance Report (PDF)
• Dashboard accessibility best practices

Survey123 blog posts

• Web accessibility best practices for Survey123 authors
• ArcGIS Survey123 Conformance Report (Web; PDF)
• ArcGIS Survey123 Conformance Report (Mobile; PDF)

Typography

• Commonwealth's Digital Accessibility Fundamentals: Content and Typography

Alternative text resources

• Commonwealth's Digital Accessibility Fundamentals: Alternative Text
• How to write alt text and image descriptions for the visually impaired from Perkins School for the Blind

Common keyboard shortcuts

• Designing and testing for accessibility in GIS and mapping blog post includes common keyboard shortcuts in Esri
• WebAIM keyboard shortcuts for NVDA

Colors

• Colorblindly colorblindness simulator available as a Chrome plugin
• WebAIM color contrast checker
• Commonwealth's Digital Accessibility Fundamentals: Color has a great amount of general information about color and accessibility
• Esri color ramps blog post on Esri Developer

Reading level tools

• Hemingway Editor
• Up-Goer Five Text Editor

Static digital maps

• Minnesota accessibility guide for static digital maps (PDF)

Accessible HTML forms

• Commonwealth's guide to creating accessible HTML forms for websites and applications

Automated testing tools

• Axe DevTools
• WAVE (web accessibility evaluation tool)

Video Resources

• Commonwealth's guidance on video accessibility
• Captions and videos blog post from UC Berkley

Last updated:	October 7, 2026