Inheriting the Count: How Visualization Literacy Got Its Measure

Authors

José Bener (Linköping University), Miriah Meyer (Linköping University)

Abstract

Visualization frameworks have operationalized literacy as an individual competency, measured through chart-comprehension tasks. This focus raises a question: why has measurement become the frame for understanding literacy? Rather than asking whether literacy should be measured, we ask how measurement became the field's way of understanding it. We trace visualization literacy through the history of textual literacy and argue that the field imported three values rooted in government statistics: quantification, individualization, and binary classification. To mark the shift, we distinguish two waves: a first centered on assessment and individual proficiency, and a second that treats literacy as a situated practice, attentive to how people use visualizations in context. Examining the construct suggests that refining assessment instruments does not settle what literacy is, and points to directions for second-wave research: formative studies of literacy, culturally grounded instruments, and critical reading. This paper shows that visualization literacy inherits its measurement frame, offers a two-wave vocabulary that distinguishes assessment-based literacy from situated practice, and connects the field to a critical-literacy tradition with alternatives to measurement. These contributions allow us to treat measurement and meaning as two parts of a question, shifting attention from who counts as literate to what literacy is meant to do.