2. IDEA: An explication of terms
The four building blocks –– and what each building block signifies in a world increasingly mediated by technology, design, and usability
The IDEA Framework is geared to civic-tech communities of practice and place – called ‘Brigades’ in Code for America parlance – includes four overarching patterns that civic technology, media, and design organizational leaders should follow as a core part of their day-to-day mission for improving society, not as an afterthought. The four components of the IDEA Framework include: inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility.
Although these four terms have overlap in meaning, each represents a distinctive idea and vision for compensating for systemic inequity from broader civil society.
In a manner not entirely dissimilar to other frameworks already widely-adopted in the social sector, this guide focuses on the distinct yet nonetheless overlapping democratic aspirations for inclusion, diversity, and equity (DEI) for all.
But few, if any, existing frameworks for address these concepts in relation to human-to-computer or human-to-screen interactions. In a period of human history when our lives increasingly take place behind a digital screen –– from financial transactions, to ride hailing, to grocery shopping, even to building grassroots movements – strategies for inclusivity in volunteer organizations dedicated to social good, for the most part, fail to address the unique and emerging influences of the digital sphere.
largely do not touch on many of the unique and largely untackled issues for inclusivity in the private sector and beyond have not historically tended to focus as much on user experience as a civic technology community should –– instead using the acronym DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) and leaving out the growing importance of accessibility as an entry point or barrier to information. The authors of this guide felt the need –– given that much of its audience is composed of software and web app developers – to include an additional focus area: accessibility.
Unlike previous mass media, electronic networks allow people to directly interact with the information with which they are presented. Consequently, citizens can have ‘real-time’ conversations with each others, regardless of geographical constraints. In addition, people with similar interests or goals can go to ‘virtual’ spaces to meet like-minded individuals and discuss issues of interest. In some cases, citizens can even converse with their political representatives about legislation on which they have an opinion.
This type of interaction adheres to the "ritual view of communication, directed not toward the extension of messages in space but toward the maintenance of society in time; not the act of imparting information but the representation of shared beliefs.” Ritual communication brings people together in a manner reminiscent of Athenian democracy or the old New England town meetings, where each citizen was provided with an equal right to speak.
INCLUSION
refers to the way our membership acknowledges inequalities within our organization and outside while intentionally promoting equity among diverse populations by actively working to minimize behaviors that continue subtle biases and exclusive behavior. Inclusion is by default diverse, but diversity within a group does not presuppose inclusion (www.d5coalition.org)
Highlight exclusion – For individuals comfortably living in the majority in technology and design communities, it’s easy to be exclusion-blind.
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