What is Access, Belonging, Inclusion, Diversity and Equity

What is ABIDE?

Access: Access is ensuring that all people are able to enjoy the benefits, resources available within, and full experiences of our community—regardless of whether they live with visible or invisible disabilities (e.g. low-vision, blindness, deafness, hard of hearing, physical disabilities, mental health challenges, speech and language disorders or cognitive and learning disabilities).

Belonging: Belonging is having a sense that one is emotionally and socially supported in a space where each person feels welcome and valued.

Inclusion: The active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity—in the curriculum, in the co-curriculum, and in communities (intellectual, social, cultural, geographical) with which individuals might connect—in ways that increase awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication, and empathic understanding of the complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions.

Diversity: Individual differences (e.g., personality, prior knowledge, and life experiences) and group/social differences (e.g., race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, country of origin, and ability as well as cultural, political, religious, or other affiliations)

Equity: The creation of opportunities for historically underserved populations to have equal access to and participate in educational programs that are capable of closing the achievement gaps in student success and completion.