Can we be ‘digitally correct’ in our mission for the humanities? 

Professor Jane Winters, director of the School of Advanced Study’s Digital Humanities Research Hub, introduces a selection of articles that consider access to digital resources and technologies through the lens of digital humanities.

It is more than a decade since a report submitted to the Human Rights Council by Frank La Rue, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, acknowledged that ‘the Internet has become an indispensable tool for realising a range of human rights, combating inequality, and accelerating human development’.

La Rue recognised, however, that there was much progress to be made in order to overcome the ‘digital divide’, that is, ‘the gap between people with effective access to digital and information technologies, in particular the Internet, and those with very limited or no access at all’ (La Rue, pp. 16, 17).

This issue of Talking Humanities considers different aspects of access to digital resources and technologies through the lens of digital humanities. In the Long Read (‘Low-tech’ offers wider take-up and sustainability for the digital humanities), Dr Christopher Ohge considers whether minimal computing, ‘a set of practices that aim to reduce barriers to access and engagement’, may provide a solution, and one which will also help to reduce the impact of global digital access on the environment.