Diversity

First Tech Fund is a new nonprofit dedicated to closing the digital divide among underserved high school students in New York City. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the burgeoning digital divide among students of different economic backgrounds.

Since the murder of George Floyd in 2020, a racial reckoning has taken place in our country that has forced public and private institutions — including the media — to acknowledge their histories of racism. Reps.

The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC)'s policy team came together to attempt to uncover the real impact of the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program for eligible Latinx households. The NHMC conducted their analysis using 11 states chosen based on their significant Latinx populations: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas. The NHMC published their findings along with recommendations for federal agencies to boost Latinx enrollment in broadband subsidy programs. Major findings include:

For America’s Latino community, education has long been the engine of generational advancement and prosperity. But the digital divide threatens to grind these gears of progress to a halt.

The National Tribal Broadband Summit will take place September 17, 24 and October 1, 2021. This year's virtual event will convene Tribal broadband industry experts to discuss how to make the most use of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Grant funds, American Rescue Plan Act funds, and other Federal funding opportunities for broadband, and how to plan for the future of Tribal broadband networks and digital economies. The 2021 summit will focus on:

Millions of Americans struggle to pay for fast internet service, or find that it’s not available where they live, a new Consumer Reports survey shows. The nationally representative survey of 2,565 adults (PDF), conducted in June of this year, adds urgency to debates over broadband infrastructure and competition, according to consumer advocates.

Americans who are deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind have been left behind in an increasingly digital communications world. These Americans are now fighting for their human right to have equal access to this world. Countless individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind — and their families and friends — have flooded the Federal Communications Commission's docket with pleas for functionally equivalent communications. Consumers are complaining that relay technologies have continued to stagnate as mainstream communications technologies have flourished.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released a Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program, which will direct $268 million for expanding broadband access and connectivity to eligible Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges or Universities (TCUs), minority-serving institutions (MSIs), and consortia led by an HBCU, TCU, or MSI that also include a minority business enterprise or tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. The Notice of Funding Opportunity 

More than almost any other group, Black communities in the Black Rural South lack affordable, high-speed, quality broadband—38 percent of African Americans there report they do not have access to home internet. Expanding broadband could help reduce the deep racial and economic inequalities in education, jobs and healthcare in the region. Too often, efforts to close the digital divide conflate “rural” with “White” and “urban” with “Black.” The Joint Center's report authored by Dr.

The Federal Communications Commission is seeking nominations for membership on the Communications Equity and Diversity Council (CEDC).