Visual Overlay

Importance: Accessibility means that our ECE system offers an adequate supply of nearby, affordable, and high-quality seats. The visual overlay makes it easy to see which communities are highest-need (i.e., low on all three forms of access), which are well-resourced (i.e., high on all three aspects), and which have other patterns of accessibility. Knowing these patterns allows for more strategic targeting of resources and supportive actions tailored to each community’s needs.

How We Got This: Color coding and symbols are used to show where each census tract stands in terms of nearby seats, affordability, and quality. Colors show the combination of nearby seats and affordability, and letters indicate the level of quality. For example: Dark brown with the letter A is the most desirable three-way combination, light peach with the letter C is the least desirable combination, grey with the letter B shows that a tract is intermediate on all three indexes.