{"id":25214,"date":"2024-08-16T18:16:47","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T18:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/?p=25214"},"modified":"2026-01-13T11:58:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T11:58:04","slug":"meet-dataviz-accessibility-expert-frank-elavsky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/news\/meet-dataviz-accessibility-expert-frank-elavsky\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Dataviz Accessibility Expert, Frank Elavsky"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6>Photo by Halvor Farsund Strovik<\/h6>\n<p><em style=\"size: 1em; font-weight: normal;\">This article is a summary of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sognavis.no\/fra-silicon-valley-til-vesle-vik-eg-hadde-aldri-trudd-at-eg-skulle-enda-opp-her\/s\/5-115-1192639\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an article that appeared in Sogn Avis<\/a> by Halvor Farsund Strovik<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Frank Elavsky, a universal design and accessibility expert with experience at Visa, Apple, and Microsoft, never imagined he would end up in Vik, a small Norwegian village with majestic views of the fjords. Yet, here he is, spending a week interning at Highsoft, the tech company behind the popular data visualization library, Highcharts.<\/p>\n<h2><b>From Visa to Vik<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Elavsky\u2019s journey to Vik began in 2018 when he was hired by Visa to create accessible data visualizations. While exploring tools for this task, he was introduced to Highcharts. Delving deeper into Highsoft\u2019s ecosystem, he became fascinated by their commitment to accessibility and set out to learn more about the company.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-24580 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-assets.highcharts.com\/www-highcharts-com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/16124351\/highsoft.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1160\" height=\"580\" \/><\/p>\n<h6>Photo by Halvor Farsund Strovik<\/h6>\n<h2><b>Nowhere? Norway<br \/>\n<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Accustomed to working at big corporations with thousands of programmers, Elavsky was surprised to learn that Highsoft, a leader in data visualization software, was a small team based in a remote Norwegian village. &#8220;Is this how you do it in Norway? Start world-leading tech companies in the middle of&#8230; nowhere?&#8221; he wondered.<\/p>\n<p>But it was Highsoft&#8217;s dedication to accessibility that truly impressed him. &#8220;Highcharts was way ahead of the rest of the industry and still is,&#8221; Elavsky says.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-24578 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-assets.highcharts.com\/www-highcharts-com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/16124347\/chees-store.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1160\" height=\"580\" \/><\/p>\n<h6>Photo by Halvor Farsund Strovik<\/h6>\n<h2><b>Going Local<br \/>\n<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>During his visit, Elavsky is not just working\u2014he\u2019s also enjoying the local culture. Accompanied by his wife, Shelby, he\u2019s explored the scenic views and sampled local delicacies including gamalost cheese. &#8220;I actually liked it. My wife might need some convincing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-24581 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-assets.highcharts.com\/www-highcharts-com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/16124353\/couple.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1160\" height=\"580\" \/><\/p>\n<h6>Photo by Marita Vindedal<\/h6>\n<h2><strong>Related posts<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/inspirations\/highcharts-dashboards-with-react\/\">Highcharts Dashboards with React<\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/inspirations\/highcharts-dashboards-with-vue\/\">Highcharts Dashboards with Vue<\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/inspirations\/highcharts-dashboards-with-angular\/\">Highcharts Dashboards with Angular<\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/inspirations\/highcharts-dashboards-with-python\/\">Highcharts Dashboards with Python<\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/dashboards\/dashboard-examples-using-highcharts-dashboards\/\">Dashboard examples using Highcharts\u00ae Dashboards<\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/tutorials\/real-time-data-visualization-using-highcharts\/\">Real-time data visualization using Highcharts<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn about Dataviz Accessibility Expert, Frank Elavsky&#8217;s week working with Highsoft in Vik.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":25221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"meta_title":"","meta_description":"","hc_selected_options":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[211],"tags":[789],"coauthors":[786],"class_list":["post-25214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-accessibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25214"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26036,"href":"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25214\/revisions\/26036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25214"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highcharts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=25214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}