Low-lying coastal communities are disproportionately vulnerable to coastal climate hazards that jeopardize livelihoods, health and wellbeing, heritage and connection to place, ocean-reliant economies, and critical infrastructure. To support communities in advocating for and making informed decisions about climate resilience in places they live, work, play in and rely on, ensuring information and data are accessible and usable for diverse users is critical. But how is this actually achieved? This presentation will describe a multi-pronged approach being implemented as part of a trans-disciplinary, community-engaged coastal climate resilience project in New England working waterfront communities geared at democratizing access to and the usability of information. This approach includes 1) the development of an ‘accessibility instrument’ against which to evaluate information/knowledge/data; 2) the creation of multimedia communication products to help researchers translate coastal resilience tools and data being produced for this project to heterogeneous audiences; 3) semi-structured community focus groups on data accessibility and information/knowledge gaps. Though this project is still in its early phases of implementation, we will discuss barriers and drivers to information accessibility internal and external to researcher’s sphere of influence; challenges and successes related to the co-development of relationships, networks, information; and themes including but not limited to data ownership in frontline communities, the hyper-localization of information, and the influence of researcher positionality and community context. We welcome feedback, discussion, and stories from attendees related to their own experiences making information more accessible to diverse audiences.
