1. Context, purpose, and vision for IDEA
Goals, Mission, Definitions, and Scope of this Guide
ORIGINALLY DRAFTED: MAY 31, 2018.
APPROVED BY NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE: TK
Principal Authors:
Ramy Kim (OpenOakland)
Carl V. Lewis (OpenSavannah)
1A. Why a framework for digital inclusion?
Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility aren't just 'nice-to-have' features in the building of civic-technology with and for communities. They are prerequisites to achieving successful and sustainable outcomes.
Collectively, we will refer to inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility in this guide as IDEA. Each of the four parts of IDEA is connected to one another, yet all have a unique and separate meanings that Brigade leaders must understand and separate from one another when designing intentional IDEA efforts and projects.
You can't build IDEA by meeting a benchmark, completing a deliverable, or seeking merely endpoint 'diversity' (diversity only meets one of the four criteria needed in useful IDEA efforts).
You can't globally npm your way to equity. A command like this will return an error:
Note: Using jargon like we just did above is another form of exclusion–technical jargon; most people don't know what the heck npm means, nor need they. Use plain language as much as possible. Keep sentences brief. Break up lengthy paragraphs using white space and other typographic or visual elements. For example, this warning box is a good example of one way to break lengthy text.
This framework addresses:
The broader issues surrounding IDEA efforts in all communities of practice or place.
Common patterns and anti-patterns for IDEA processes and projects within civic-tech and design communities that embrace equality and equity as part of their core mission (in this case, in Code for America Brigades).
In doing so, it aims to align best practices, develop shared definitions for IDEA concepts. It blends earlier DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) concepts from the private sector with the newer mandate of digital equity and accessibility that is particularly unique to our work as civic technologists.*
We use the term civic technologists and civic tech in the broadest possible sense. We recognize that 'civic-tech' may not be the most precise term, but it is the most relevant terminology we have for the movement for citizen-driven solutions t. The intended audience is not the technologist who happens also to carry out the duties of citizenship, but rather citizens who wield the principles and practices of technology-building to build stronger ties between residents and their governments.
Inclusion is a vague concept to grasp for many, particularly for those of us who are already included in the majority. Rather than focus solely on ways to be more inclusive, it's perhaps more useful to focus on the force hampering inclusion: its antithesis, exclusion.
Inclusion efforts that fail to acknowledge, recognize, and call out exclusion for what it is – and who is responsible – will amount to little more than tokenism. Platitudes are cheap. Taking action to end exclusionary processes and systems is tough.
As Laurenellen McCann so astutely first pointed out in 2015:
Our focus on inclusion is misplaced as long as it fails to change the structures and practices that promote exclusion in the first place . . . inclusion is inherently about exclusion. We can’t question the “in”, of course. We can’t look at what about “in” creates “out”. We can’t reflect beyond who is “not included” to what we are doing — individually, organizationally, systematically — that excludes.
Exclusion is typically invisible to those who are not excluded. It is not a conscious form of prejudice or bias; it's an unnoticed disease that can afflict communities if not actively combatted with intent. Which is exactly why it's so potent. It's a silent form of disempowerment that turns away potential volunteers, limits retention, and, worst of all, makes people feel unworthy and powerless.
Exclusion isn't always seen, but it's felt. We recommend that civic tech communities actively seek to identify the barriers to participation and social belonging that
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