@inproceedings{79979069fa5c448195a4737b8dcd41dd,
title = "Making Charts Speak: LLM-Based Conversational Chart Question Answering for Blind and Low-Vision Users",
abstract = "Blind and low-vision (BLV) users face significant barriers when encountering charts in digital content. While recent advances in large language models (LLMs) show promise for chart interpretation, existing accessible systems rely on pre-structured data formats, limiting applicability to real-world charts. We present GraphWhisper, a conversational system enabling BLV users to explore charts through natural language without requiring pre-structured data. GraphWhisper employs enhanced chart-specific prompting strategies that guide LLMs to systematically extract and analyze data directly from chart images, achieving 98.1\% accuracy on visualization literacy benchmarks. A user study with 15 BLV participants demonstrated 94\% question-answering accuracy across 185 questions and exceptional satisfaction scores (4.87-5.0 on 5-point scales), validating the system's practical effectiveness for everyday chart accessibility.",
keywords = "Blind and Low-Vision Users, Chart Accessibility, Data Visualization, Large Language Models",
author = "Das, \{Amit Kumar\} and Mohammad Tarun and Klaus Mueller",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2026 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).; Extended Abtracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2026 ; Conference date: 13-04-2026 Through 17-04-2026",
year = "2026",
month = apr,
day = "13",
doi = "10.1145/3772363.3799030",
language = "English",
series = "Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings ",
publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",
editor = "Nuria Oliver and Shamma, \{David A.\} and Heloisa Candello and Pablo Cesar and Pedro Lopes and Valentino Artizzu and Fiona Draxler and Gustavo Lopez and Reinschluessel, \{Anke V.\} and Xin Tong and \{Toups Dugas\}, \{Phoebe O.\}",
booktitle = "CHI 2026 - Extended Abtracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems",
}