[U-23] New challenges to diversity, equality and inclusion under COVID-19

[U23-P02] How the COVID-19 Response Opens Broader Viewpoints for Promoting Inclusive Conferences in the Earth and Space Sciences

*Beverly Smith-Keiling¹, Andreas Keiking² (1.University of Minnesota Twin Cities, 2.University of California-Berkeley)

Keywords:Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Human Rights, Virtual, Accommodations

From the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights to current diversity statements, science entities in the U.S. and globally promote and enhance diversity and equity. For example, AGU, EGU, and Europlanet aim to 'foster an inclusive environment where science and scientific careers can flourish,' 'improve equality of opportunity and diversity,' and 'build a diverse inclusive community,' 'respectively. Clarity from JpGU members' broader viewpoints on diversity and inclusion statements are needed for promoting inclusion. One area is in scientific conferences, not only in the participation in the conference but also engagement and representation at every level. With a goal to increase equitable participation in scientific conferences, engagement and representation at every level, we made initial observations and employed strategies while hosting (together with colleagues) four AGU Chapman conferences between 2011-2016. Within the Social Ecological Model Framework, individual and interpersonal inner-level determinants were our primary target leading us to seek broader viewpoints through an internationally distributed survey. Early observations from this survey and participation in a virtual EGU 2020 conference following the Covid-19 response highlighted the importance of two inclusive practices that were highly ranked in our survey by respondents prior to the outbreak: 1) Live streaming or conference chats for open access, and 2) Additional accommodations for disability (vision, hearing, etc.). These early survey results about what constitutes an inclusive conference apply to virtual delivery, and can help develop strategies to promote advocacy for policy changes and for additional measures that could be applied at conference initiation. This would target the outer level determinants at the policy level to promote inclusion. Yet, through an equity lens, virtual access does not solve all challenges.