Racial Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Supporting racial Equality, Diversity and Inclusion online and at the University of Edinburgh.

How can Wikipedia support racial diversity?

Currently, there are gaps in cultural and racial diversity in the topics represented on Wikipedia; these gaps can be explored on Wikipedia's diversity observatory. There are particular gaps in regard to the global south, which is underrepresented both in the topics on English Wikipedia as well as in articles written in languages from the global south.

The University's commitment to race equality, diversity and inclusion includes:

A commitment to diversifying curriculum content
The creation of new courses with a focus on diversity

Wikimedia's commitment to racial equality, diversity and inclusion includes:

Diversifying the contributors to open knowledge resources
Ensuring knowledge is freely accessible to everybody regardless of their race, culture or geographic location
Ensuring knowledge about race and cultures is freely accessible to everybody

AfroCROWD: Supporting those of African descent in the Wikimedia community

AfroCROWD stands for Afro Free Culture Crowdsourcing Wikimedia. The initiative aims to increase awareness of, and contributions from, those of African descent on Wikipedia. By holding multilingual edit-a-thons, AfroCROWD is improving and diversifying Wikipedia in non-European languages and supporting access to open knowledge. Read more about AfroCROWD's work at AfroCROWD - About.

Improving Access to Medical Knowledge

Research has found that Wikipedia is a good source of professional medical knowledge, and although there are some gaps it is a good source of knowledge that is openly accessible. There have been successes through organised attempts to improve the health information on Wikipedia, such as Wikiproject AIDS which aims to build a comprehensive and accessible guide about HIV-related subjects on Wikipedia.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Wikipedia has been used as a source of health information for the public more than ever, with the Covid-19 pandemic page being the 4th most-viewed English language Wikipedia page ever, and the World Health Organisation worked with the Wikimedia Foundation to help make health information and infographics freely available for use. The pandemic has also been well-covered in other languages; Wikiproject Medicine supported Covid-19 health information being uploaded to 9 different Indian language Wikipedias to improve India's access to health information.

Read more about health knowledge at Wikiproject Medicine.

Changing the Representation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

On Wikipedia, the majority of articles about Asian American and Pacific Islander topics are low-rated for their quality - almost half of the 2,555 articles highlighted by Wikiproject Asian Americans are start-class basic articles with limited details and references. The Asian American Journalist Association and Wikimedia UK held a joint event in 2021 to discuss how to fill content gaps and encourage Asian American communities to get involved with Wikipedia. You can watch the conference at the following site: Video - Changing how Asian Americans are Represented in the Media and on Wikipedia

By contributing to Wikipedia, individuals can contribute to better racial and cultural diversity and improve global access to knowledge. Because of the discoverability of Wikipedia articles on web searches, writing articles can also allow individuals to raise awareness of important topics, events and notable figures of different cultures, improving diversity in the information available online.