Publications

Angela Siefer, founder and executive director of the Ohio-based National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), has done digital equity work dating back to the ’90s. Up until 2019, Siefer was encountering many public officials who did not understand what digital equity was or why it mattered despite the increased digitalization of the government over the past […]

Why isn’t the participation rate for the government’s welfare programs at 100%? Why do only 82% of those eligible under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) receive benefits? Given the program differences across the country, some states have participation rates as low as 55%. Seen through the lens of administrative burden, citizens’ interactions with the […]

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the important role efforts to promote digital access, literacy, and skills play in promoting a more equitable society. This lesson is perhaps most apparent for education, where many of the nation’s children and educators were forced into virtual schooling on short notice and with inadequate digital resources, such as tablet computers […]

More Americans have access to the internet than ever before, but mode of access may vary depending on who you are and where you live. According to a survey done by the Pew Research Center [1], the percentage of Americans with incomes less than $30K that rely only on their smartphones to access the internet […]

As technology advances and COVID-19 continues to force activities to be virtual, there is an increasing divide between those who can and cannot go online. The people who are most affected by this divide are in low-income and rural areas, and without access to the internet, they will struggle to participate in opportunities for their […]