Doug Schepers has spent much of his career making the web better for people who experience it differently. As a longtime staff member at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), he worked on HTML, CSS, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
He also became friends with many blind colleagues. It was those relationships led him to consider some of the gaps that existed in how charts and graphs were handled.
In 2013, Schepers spoke at a data visualization conference about accessibility. Most of the practitioners in the room had never considered making charts usable for blind people. They were intrigued by the new constraint. A few years later, after burning out on the intense pace of standards work, he decided to turn the idea into a company.
Schepers could have chased any of a number of then-trendy tech spaces, like blockchain or fintech software, but instead, Schepers wanted a mission closer to the one he had at W3C: making technology better for everyone. With his Chapel Hill-based startup, Fizz Studio, he’s aiming to do just that.
From experiments to ParaCharts
Early versions of accessibility software let screen-reader users reach every data point in a chart. Technically, that worked; experientially it fell short.
“When I look at a chart, I don’t look at each individual data point and come away with a sense of what the chart is,” Schepers explained. Charts themselves are a form of assistive technology for sighted people: They reveal shape, trends, and relationships that raw spreadsheets hide. Giving blind users only the spreadsheet experience was not good enough.
To go further, Schepers and a small team built machine-learning algorithms that run entirely in the browser to detect trends in line and bar charts. They layered on a custom natural-language generation system (a “realizer”) that turns those trends into clear, consistent descriptions. The product that emerged is ParaCharts.
ParaCharts analyzes data patterns while drawing a chart. A “salience engine” ranks which patterns matter most, then converts them into prose at three levels: the overall chart, individual series, and specific data points. A user can get the gist in a couple of seconds—the same rapid comprehension a sighted reader gets from a glance—and then explore further if interested. The system also supports sonification and self-voicing so the data can be experienced through sound.
Everything stays on the client side; no data is sent to a remote server.
Consistency is also a point of emphasis. Large language models can produce fluent descriptions, but the wording changes from run to run. Regulated industries—banking, healthcare, universities, and any organization facing accessibility mandates such as Title II—need repeatable results. ParaCharts delivers the same description for the same data every time.
The curb-cut effect and universal design
Schepers is careful to stress that his products don’t only benefit people who are blind or have low vision. Direct labeling, reduced cognitive load, and plain-language explanations also help people with dyslexia, people who struggle with certain chart types, and anyone who simply wants clarity. To this point, he invokes the curb-cut effect (ramps built for wheelchairs that also help strollers, luggage, and bikes) and the widespread everyday use of video captions (originally for deaf viewers).
“Accessibility can be considered a mindfulness exercise,” he said. Designing for the edges often improves the experience for the middle. The longer the team has worked on ParaCharts, the clearer it has become that clear chart descriptions create a shared experience across all users.
Careful growth and the next chapters
Fizz Studio has grown carefully. Schepers funded early development through consulting work advising large organizations on accessible data visualization. Many of those clients told him their existing charting libraries simply could not implement the improvements he recommended: better color contrast, keyboard navigation, direct labels instead of legends. That feedback reinforced the need for purpose-built software.
The company is now shifting from pure consulting toward B2B software licenses and OEM deals that embed ParaCharts into other platforms. Universities and education-focused software vendors are early targets; finance and healthcare are natural fits as well.
One decision Schepers is emphatic about: Fizz Studio will remain bootstrapped, a dedication to the people Schepers made his company for. He has watched accessibility-focused products lose their focus once shareholder pressure arrives.
“We’re going to be around for the long haul,” he said. The plan includes open-sourcing the software so it can outlive the company if necessary.
QUICK BITS
Startup: Fizz Studio
Founder: Doug Schepers (CEO)
Founded: 2018
Team size: 6
Location: Chapel Hill
Website: fizz.studio
Funding: Bootstrapped
Future work includes support for diagrams and dashboards, an accessible graphing calculator, and, most critically, authoring tools that let people with disabilities create their own charts. True workplace equity, Schepers argues, requires the ability both to consume and to produce clear data communication.
Another longer-term interest is trustworthiness. Data-driven descriptions make it harder to mislead with charts. Organizations that rely on visualizations for decisions want fidelity and auditability; ParaCharts is positioned to help deliver both.
Schepers brings an unusual combination of backgrounds to the work. He studied linguistics, earned an associate’s degree in computer programming, and has been writing code since he was a teenager in the 1980s. He identifies as neurodivergent—and sees systems thinking as a through-line connecting language, technology, and communication.
“Ultimately it’s about understanding what is most human about us,” he said.
Organizations that publish charts—especially those in regulated sectors or those that simply want to reach a wider audience—are invited to get in touch. Schepers is open to conversations about use cases, partnerships, or feedback even if a commercial deal does not result. He has also offered to demo ParaCharts for data journalists and others who live with visualizations daily.
