{"id":1637992,"date":"2023-02-02T11:19:26","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T19:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?post_type=blog&p=1637992"},"modified":"2024-05-15T14:59:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T21:59:15","slug":"working-with-enhanced-contrast-basemaps-to-improve-accessibility","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-living-atlas\/mapping\/working-with-enhanced-contrast-basemaps-to-improve-accessibility","title":{"rendered":"Working with Enhanced Contrast basemaps to improve accessibility"},"author":4491,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[22941],"tags":[28911,23201,40161,33541,757231],"industry":[],"product":[36581,36551],"class_list":["post-1637992","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mapping","tag-accessibility","tag-cartographic-design","tag-living-atlas-of-the-world","tag-vector-basemaps","tag-wcag","product-arcgis-living-atlas","product-arcgis-online"],"acf":{"short_description":"The new \u2018Enhanced Contrast\u2019 basemaps are a starting point for building an accessible map.","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Update:<\/strong> As of February 2023 these two basemaps are out of ‘Beta’ and included in the Basemap Gallery for US users. Users or Organizations in other regions or with custom map galleries can add the basemaps themselves. They can still be found in the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Early last year, I completed a set of prototypes for building accessibility into basemaps by using more contrasting colors. Starting this year, we are adding two of them (as \u2018beta\u2019) to our suite of basemaps. They are called \u2018Enhanced Contrast\u2019, and they are based on my ‘Accessible\u2019 and ‘Accessible Dark\u2019 prototypes, with a few design \u2018tweaks\u2019.<\/p>\n

Here is a link to the Enhanced Contrast<\/a> web map and tile layers in the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World<\/p>\n

… and to the Enhanced Contrast Dark.<\/a><\/p>\n

They are available in Web Mercator and WGS84. Initially they will not be appearing in the drop-down basemap galleries, but they will be available through the Living Atlas, and you can add them to a custom basemap gallery<\/a> if you have one set up.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":1638062,"id":1638062,"title":"EC_BasemapSamples","filename":"EC_BasemapSamples.png","filesize":909262,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2022\/06\/EC_BasemapSamples.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-living-atlas\/mapping\/working-with-enhanced-contrast-basemaps-to-improve-accessibility\/ec_basemapsamples","alt":"Samples of the Enhanced Contrast and Enhanced Contrast Dark basemaps","author":"4491","description":"","caption":"","name":"ec_basemapsamples","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":1637992,"date":"2022-06-27 19:26:05","modified":"2022-06-27 19:26:51","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2295,"height":944,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2022\/06\/EC_BasemapSamples-213x200.png","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2022\/06\/EC_BasemapSamples.png","medium-width":464,"medium-height":191,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2022\/06\/EC_BasemapSamples.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":316,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2022\/06\/EC_BasemapSamples.png","large-width":1920,"large-height":790,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2022\/06\/EC_BasemapSamples-1536x632.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":632,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2022\/06\/EC_BasemapSamples-2048x842.png","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":842,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2022\/06\/EC_BasemapSamples-826x340.png","card_image-width":826,"card_image-height":340,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2022\/06\/EC_BasemapSamples-1920x790.png","wide_image-width":1920,"wide_image-height":790}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2022\/06\/EC_BasemapSamples.png"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Hopefully you will find them useful, but remember that they are only as effective as the work you<\/em> do on top of them. In this blog, I\u2019m looking at ways you can integrate them with your maps.<\/p>\n

Accessibility<\/h1>\n

The purpose of a basemap is to sit in the background and provide a foundation for you to build on. The basemap may meet WCAG<\/a>\/Section 508<\/a> requirements, but the information you put on top needs to as well, and that raises some issues.<\/p>\n

One feature of an accessible<\/em> map is that contrast is increased. That pushes some of the basemap detail up into the visual space we normally reserve for your<\/em> information. So, if the basemap is getting in the way of what you want to show, how do you get around it?<\/p>\n

Here are some options.<\/p>\n

Go Gray<\/h2>\n

This is an obvious choice, and I built some gray prototypes. We are not retaining these, but we have made adjustments to these versions so that they <\/em>can be switched to grayscale effectively. It leaves you with the rest of the color palette to play with!<\/p>\n