One of the challenges to encountering data-driven digital resources is their seeming objectivity. But these resources can be anything but. Therefore, it’s important to critically evaluate the fairness and justness of the processes and outcomes of digital tools and projects.
We All Count, an online project advocating for equity in data science, provides resources like the Date Equity Framework for critically evaluating how equitable data project. Similarly, our class offers we should be asking when considering adopting a digital tool or project. While these questions are useful to all users, they may also be adapted for classroom use to help students think through the sometimes profoundly inequitable outcomes data tools and projects can produce.
Questions to help evaluate whether a particular DH tool or project embraces equity:
- Look at labor:
- Who created the resource? How were the compensated and credited?
- Look at representation:
- Who makes up the team?
- How does the digital project represent people and groups of people?
- Look at context:
- Do they provide additional resources or aid to contextualize their data?
- Look for transparency:
- Are their methods explained?
- Do they provide open-access to resources and data?
To explore more about digital equity:
