Scientific maps should reach everyone: The cblindplot R package to let colour blind people visualise spatial patterns

Rocchini, Duccio; Nowosad, Jakub; D'Introno, Rossella; Chieffallo, Ludovico; Bacaro, Giovanni; Gatti, Roberto Cazzolla; Foody, Giles M.; Furrer, Reinhard; Gábor, Lukáš; Malavasi, Marco; Marcantonio, Matteo; Marchetto, Elisa; Moudrý, Vítězslav; Ricotta, Carlo; Šímová, Petra; Torresani, Michele; Thouverai, Elisa

Abstract

Maps represent powerful tools to show the spatial variation of a variable in a straightforward manner. A crucial aspect in map rendering for its interpretation by users is the gamut of colours used for displaying data. One part of this problem is linked to the proportion of the human population that is colour blind and, therefore, highly sensitive to colour palette selection. The aim of this paper is to present the cblindplot R package and its founding function - cblind.plot() - which enables colour blind people to just enter an image in a coding workflow, simply set their colour blind deficiency type, and immediately get as output a colour blind friendly plot. We will first describe in detail colour blind problems, and then show a step by step example of the function being proposed. While examples exist to provide colour blind people with proper colour palettes, in such cases (i) the workflow include a separate import of the image and the application of a set of colour ramp palettes and (ii) albeit being well documented, there are many steps to be done before plotting an image with a colour blind friendly ramp palette. The function described in this paper, on the contrary, allows to (i) automatically call the image inside the function without any initial import step and (ii) explicitly refer to the colour blind deficiency type being experienced, to further automatically apply the proper colour ramp palette.

Citation

Rocchini, D., Nowosad, J., D'Introno, R., Chieffallo, L., Bacaro, G., Gatti, R. C., …Thouverai, E. (2023). Scientific maps should reach everyone: The cblindplot R package to let colour blind people visualise spatial patterns. Ecological Informatics, 76, Article 102045. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2023.102045

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 26, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Mar 3, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-09
• Deposit Date: Mar 31, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2023
• Journal: Ecological Informatics
• Print ISSN: 1574-9541
• Publisher: Elsevier BV
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 76
• Article Number: 102045
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2023.102045
• Keywords: Colour blindness; Computational ecology; Ecological informatics; Mapping; R; Scientific communication
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/19009298
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574954123000742?via%3Dihub