Communicating Climate Change Adaptation to Color-Blind Audience: Are We Paying Attention?

Thousands of research articles on climate change adaptation are published each year. Most of them contain figures and images that share scientific findings with interested audiences. These findings are important information for human adaptation to climate change and no one should be left behind. However, how many of these studies are paying attention to the color-blind audiences (about 300 million people worldwide) when designing and sharing scientific information through figures and images?

In order to answer this important question, we performed an analysis of highly cited studies from the Web of Science database on the topic of climate change adaptation in the last 30 years. Screening of papers was done by two independent reviewers and special focus was placed on the types of figures and images included in the studies and their representation elements such as color palettes and color contrast. The findings from this research can be useful for better communicating climate change adaptation to color-blind audiences as this is an important issue to address in order to ensure accessibility, avoid misinterpretation, enhance engagement, and fulfill our ethical responsibility to inclusivity in addressing climate change. Finally, we hope that this type of research will raise awareness among researchers and motivate them to pay attention when communicating climate change adaptation strategies and solutions to color-blind audience worldwide.

 

Acknowledgement: This research is supported by the project ClearClimate - “Engaging approaches and services for meaningful climate actions”. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101131220.