On Thursday, August 21, 2025, the Black Equity Coalition (BEC) hosted the eighth Community Data Justice Collaborative (CDJC) workshop as part of the Modernizing Anti-Racist Data Ecosystems (MADE) for Health Justice initiative. The session was led by Robert Gradeck, Director of the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center (WPRDC), with support from BEC Project Manager Jamaica Jones, who opened the meeting and set the stage for the evening’s discussion.
Why Visualization Matters
Data visualizations communicate more than numbers. The way information is presented can also shape how communities are seen, whose stories are told, and whether the realities of Black neighborhoods and other marginalized groups are respected or erased.
To center the conversation in shared understanding, participants first considered style guides developed by other cities and organizations. These guides showed how consistency in things like color coding and sectioning can reduce confusion and advance clarity. However, CDJC members also pointed out that guidelines can also be restrictive, and alone will not prevent bias or misrepresentation. To ensure equitable representation, they cautioned that design must center community users from the very start. “We should start with the end user,” said one participant. “Everything else depends on that.”
Community Priorities for Equitable Design
Through guided and collaborative discussion, participants began to surface concrete directions for what an equity-focused style guide in Pittsburgh should reflect:
- Multiple ways of experiencing data – Visuals matter, but so do stories, images, and formats that reflect lived experience. For example, nutrition-related data might be better understood with pictures of food rather than by numbers or dots.
- Accessibility for low vision – Data products should be designed so that people with different visual abilities are able to access them.
- Audience-specific design – City staff may need one type of resource while residents may need another. A single approach won’t serve everyone.
- Community testing and feedback – Ideally, no visualization would be published without first being reviewed by the people it was meant to serve.
Participants also emphasized that, rather than replicate what has been done elsewhere, their work should offer something new and specific to Pittsburgh – something that reflects local communities in the context of Pittsburgh’s specific data ecosystem.
Looking Ahead
The conversations from this workshop laid the foundation for a set of community-driven principles to guide how Pittsburgh presents its data. At the next session, CDJC members will continue shaping these ideas into clear recommendations for the City – a critical next step in ensuring that future data products reflect the perspectives and priorities of the communities they are meant to serve.
About the Community Data Justice Collaborative (CDJC):
The Black Equity Coalition (BEC), in partnership with the City of Pittsburgh created the Community Data Justice Collaborative (CDJC) as part of the broader Data Justice for Pittsburgh’s Black Neighborhoods project, designed to empower Black residents with decision-making authority over how data is used, governed, and shared in the city. Pittsburgh is one of four U.S. cities selected for the Modern Anti-Racist Data Ecosystems (MADE) for Health Justice initiative, supported by the de Beaumont Foundation. The de Beaumont Foundation sponsored the BEC’s work to assist in accelerating the development of health-focused local data ecosystems that center principles of anti-racism, equity, justice, and community power.
The Community Data Justice Collaborative is a group of residents who engage in decisions that the City of Pittsburgh makes about data, technology, and policies that will serve as the foundation of the City’s emerging data governance process. The BEC will engage the Community Data Justice Collaborative and city data stewards in participatory activities to find agreement around how the city uses data and technology.
