Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policies
The Problem
At DigitalSrapbook.com, we believe in welcoming everyone, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, political beliefs, neurotype, cultural background, sex, gender, income level, or any abilities or disabilities. The members of our community hail from many backgrounds, from almost every country of the world. Many of our members have disabilities of various kinds, and many come from low income homes.
Unfortunately, the digital scrapbooking hobby, like so many areas of our multifaceted global cultures, can suffer from feedback loops of inequity and underrepresentation. For example, if certain groups of people are more typically designers in this hobby, it can mean that the beautiful scrapbooking kits they create may not adequately represent other groups of people. This comes about not because of any malice or ill-intent on the part of designers, but simply because it is hard for any of us to know how best to represent people outside of our own normative experience.
Sadly, a lack of representation can make people from underrepresented groups feel unwelcome, with the end result that underrepresented individuals are less likely to become designers within the community themselves. If not resisted, these sorts of cycles have the potential to continually assert and reinforce themselves. (As one hypothetical example: if there are relatively fewer Arab designers in the global digital scrapbooking community, then it is likely that Arab peoples and Arab cultures will be underrepresented within our digital scrapbooking kits, which could make Arab hobbyists feel less welcome in our community, with the end result that they are less likely to become designers within the community--and so the cycle reinforces itself.)
At DigitalScrapbook.com we attempt to fight these cycles of inequity and underrepresentation with a variety of strategies and policies related to equity and inclusion.
Our Equity Policies
Free creative resources
Because we are a mission-driven public benefit company, it has always been important to us to provide all our members with access to creative tools and resources regardless of their background, income, or ability levels. Consequently, almost every resource on our site has been made available for free through our “download credit” system.
Grants for low income individuals
Low income individuals may apply for grants to offset the cost of our download subscription plans. For more information please use our contact form to contact us.
Our Diversity Policies
Inclusive Representation
We ask that all of our designers solicit and listen to feedback from our community when designing their scrapbooking kits, and that they make best efforts to represent people from a variety of backgrounds and with a variety of abilities. Of course, no single designer can represent everyone, but as a team we want to do the best we can to represent as many people as possible.
If you do not feel that your identity and life experience are adequately represented within our scrapbooking kits, we invite you to please reach out to us so that we can try to do better.
Designer Mentorship Program
We have free mentorship programs available for those from underrepresented groups who wish to get started in designing, or take their skills to the next level.
If you have an interest in designing, and consider yourself to be part of an underrepresented group of any kind, please contact us.
Open Call for Designers From Underrepresented Groups
Are you a digital scrapbooking designer from an underrepresented group and interested in potentially joining our team? If so please reach out to us using our contact form, as we are always looking to increase the diversity of our design team.