Communications of the ACM

Home/Opinion/Articles/Data Trends on Minorities and People with Disabilities.../Abstract

Broadening participation

Data Trends on Minorities and People with Disabilities in Computing

By Valerie Taylor, Richard Ladner
Communications of the ACM, December 2011, Vol. 54 No. 12, Pages 34-37
10.1145/2043174.2043187
Comments (2)

View as: Print Mobile App ACM Digital Library In the Digital Edition Share: Send by email Share on reddit Share on StumbleUpon Share on Hacker News Share on Tweeter Share on Facebook

Seeking a comprehensive view of minority student demographics to determine what programs and policies are needed to promote diversity.

The full text of this article is premium content

Comments

Ben Haley

November 29, 2011 02:05

Modeling minorities based on Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans seems like an incomplete model. How do Asian and Indian minorities compare? Are those minorities overrepresented?

CACM Administrator

April 03, 2014 11:42

The following letter was published in the Letters to the Editor of the March 2012 CACM (http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2012/3/146236).
--CACM Administrator

Addressing the lack of diversity in computer science, the Viewpoint "Data Trends on Minorities and People with Disabilities in Computing" (Dec. 2011) by Valerie Taylor and Richard Ladner seemed to have been based solely on the belief that diversity is good per se. However, it offered no specific evidence as to why diversity, however defined, is either essential or desirable.

I accept that there should be equal opportunity in all fields and that such a goal is a special challenge for a field as intellectually demanding as computer science. However, given that the authors did not make this point directly, what exactly does diversity have to do with competence in computing? Moreover, without some detailed discussion of the need or desirability of diversity in computer science, it is unlikely that specific policies and programs needed to attract a variety of interested people can be formulated.

It is at least a moral obligation for a profession to ensure it imposes no unjustifiable barriers to entry, but only showing that a situation exists is far from addressing it.

John C. Bauer
Manotick, Ontario, Canada

-----------------------------------------------

AUTHORS' RESPONSE

In the inaugural Broadening Participation Viewpoint "Opening Remarks" (Dec. 2009), the author Ladner outlined three reasons for broadening participation numbers, social justice, and quality supporting them with the argument that diverse teams are more likely to produce quality products than those from the same background. Competence is no doubt a prerequisite for doing anything well, but diversity and competence combined is what companies seek to enhance their bottom lines.

Valerie Taylor
College Station, TX

Richard Ladner
Seattle

Displaying all 2 comments

Log in to Read the Full Article

Sign In

Sign in using your ACM Web Account username and password to access premium content if you are an ACM member, Communications subscriber or Digital Library subscriber.

Need Access?

Please select one of the options below for access to premium content and features.

Create a Web Account

If you are already an ACM member, Communications subscriber, or Digital Library subscriber, please set up a web account to access premium content on this site.

Join the ACM

Become a member to take full advantage of ACM's outstanding computing information resources, networking opportunities, and other benefits.

Subscribe to Communications of the ACM Magazine

Get full access to 50+ years of CACM content and receive the print version of the magazine monthly.

Purchase the Article

Non-members can purchase this article or a copy of the magazine in which it appears.