Cognitive accessibility forces rethink of data visualization

A new paper argues that cognitive accessibility offers a critical lens for examining data visualization and can act as a stress test for visualization theory. Drawing on cognitive accessibility research, the authors identify three interconnected assumptions in how visualization is studied and practiced: what forms of cognition it supports, how accessibility is defined and measured, and whose needs and abilities are centered in design and evaluation. Making these assumptions explicit, they argue, could open new directions and expand what visualization supports, whom it serves, and the roles it plays in people's lives. The paper was accepted to the 3rd Workshop on Accessible Visualization at IEEE VIS 2026.