CTData Conference Recap: How can we "Do No Harm" with our data visualizations?
CTData hosts a monthly gathering of Connecticut data users, the Equity in Data Community of Practice, who are supporting one another to identify ways we can practically integrate equitable practices into our data work. This group hosted an engaging presentation by Alice Feng and Jon Schwabish, co-authors of the report, Do No Harm with Data: Applying Equity Awareness in Data Visualization. You can watch the video, read the brief highlights, and access the links that were shared during the session below.
Learn more about the Equity in Data Community of Practice or join us for an upcoming session!
Key Takeaways
While each person in the session no doubt took away something unique, some of the high-level, key themes that we took away are these:
Empathy. The question, “If I were a data point in this visualization, would I feel offended” is crucial. If you would feel disrespected, disempowered, or misunderstood, then the visualization isn’t ready for prime-time.
Relationships. Our own feelings about our visualization are limited if we don’t have first-hand experience as a data point. Build relationships with the people who are in the data so you can be sure your project is respectful from start to finish. If you haven’t been having conversations with people in the data throughout each phase of the data project, you might have a hard time with creating a respectful data visualization.
Consider the “Standard.” Often-times when exploring race or ethnicity data, groups are compared to either the White group or the best group. But are those groups really the standard? If our goal is 0% food insecurity, why are we comparing all groups to the White group when they still experience food insecurity. Why not compare to the goal? Another consideration is comparing to the average rather than a specific group.
Resources Shared During Session
Alice Feng’s publications and resources
Sign up to receive Equity in Data Community of Practice emails
Monthly email with resources and information about upcoming events
Alice Feng’s data visualization’s. Alice has done some very interesting projects and visualizations, from Where to Prioritize Emergency Rental Assistance to Keep Renters in their Homes, to (the fun) Superstar Countries, to How rigid is the middle class in the US, really?
Feng was a co-creator of Urban Institute’s Tracking Covid-19’s Effects by Race and Ethnicity
Jonathan Schwabish’s publications and resources
Book: Better Data Visualizations: A Guide for Scholars, Researchers, and Wonks
PolicyViz site by Jon. Includes videos, resources, and a podcast. One participant highlighted Episode 191 with Sarah Williams, on the topic of Data Action (see Williams’ book, here).
Rethinking Economics in the Black Lives Matter Era, co-authored by Jon.
Urban Institute resources that were shared
Learning Tools, “a series of practice briefs and blog posts that explain key concepts and address relevant topics in performance measurement.”
Additional resources shared
Report: More Than Numbers: A Guide Toward Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Data Collection. Gives language for asking demographic questions in more equitable ways
Book: The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, by Richard Rothstein
Report: Chicago Beyond, Why am I Always Being Researched? A Guidebook for Community Organizations, Researchers, and Funders to Help Us Get from Insufficient Understanding to More Authentic Truth
Public Health Research Consulting, a resource for community-based research strategies
You can learn more about the Equity in Data Community of Practice here or look through the resources that have been shared from our sessions. We meet monthly, and you can sign up to join us here (curiosity and interest in data are the only requirements!). You can watch more of the sessions from CTData (mini) Conference 2021 at the conference hub. You can keep up with us by subscribing to the CTData newsletter and following us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.