BEST PRACTICES FOR ACCESSIBLE SCIENCE COMMUNICATION IN THE GEOSCIENCES (Invited Presentation)

The geosciences, like most STEM fields, are sorely lacking in representation and inclusion of disabled people. Disability is an intersectional identity that impacts people across genders, ethnicities, and other demographics; therefore, efforts to expand access for disabled people will also broaden participation in geoscience in other ways. As science communication in the geosciences expands to reach more audiences, we must work to ensure that content, materials, and events are fully accessible to everyone. I will present a brief overview of the intersection between disabilities and STEM, including an introduction to the many types of disabilities. I will also share examples of accessible communication projects and best practices that you can apply to your work, all based on published research and my experience as a disabled geologist. I will specifically highlight PBS Eons, a geoscience YouTube channel that always publishes closed captions (accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing people), and several museums that consistently use image descriptions on social media, including the American Museum of Natural History. These multimedia channels serve as examples of effective and accessible digital geoscience communication. However, these practices are not the norm on social media, even among geoscience professionals and organizations with tens of thousands of followers. There are many helpful tools that make accessibility easy, but they are often underutilized. For example, YouDescribe, which allows anyone to dictate descriptions of YouTube videos to increase access for blind people, currently has no geology videos with an audio description. Guidance from this presentation will be relevant to all geoscience professionals interested in community engagement, informal education, and science communication, online and in person.