OER can be used to make education more equitable, not just in terms of access and cost, but in terms of representation. Below are some sources of openly licensed images and illustrations that can be included in OER to make it more representative of the diversity of student experiences and backgrounds. Always double-check that the images you are using are openly licensed and compatible with your copyright license.
- Indigenous People in Education Stock Photos collection – Thompson Rivers University (TRU) has created the collection due to a lack of open-source photos of Indigenous students for use in OER. The spirit of the photo collection is to allow educators to represent Indigenous peoples in their OER so that Indigenous students can see themselves reflected in their learning materials. All photos have a CC-BY-NC-SA license.
- Disabled And Here – “Disabled And Here is a disability-led stock image and interview series celebrating disabled Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC).” Images are available under a CC BY 4.0 license.
- The Gender Spectrum Collection – a stock photo library featuring images of trans and non-binary models that go beyond the clichés. This collection aims to help media better represent members of these communities as people not necessarily defined by their gender identities—people with careers, relationships, talents, passions, and home lives.” Hosted by Vice.com and images available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license
- Nappy – “[W]e launched nappy … to provide beautiful, high-res photos of black and brown people to startups, brands, agencies, and everyone else. Nappy makes it easy for companies to be purposeful about representation in their designs, presentations, and advertisements.” Images available under a CC0 1.0 license
- WOCinTechChat – This collection was created to address “the problem of not having visible representations of women of colour engaging in technical tasks in stock images.” Hosted by Flickr; Images available under a CC BY 2.0 license
- Anthro Illustrated – “Anthro Illustrated offers free digital illustrations of diverse anthropologists for non-commercial use.” Images available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license
- PICNOI – “We are a coop of stock image photography. We recognize that most other FREE stock image sites have very few or no images of people of color. We sought out to create a space where publishers, bloggers, website owners, marketers, designers, graphic artists, advertisers and the like can easily search and find diverse multi-racial images.” Images available under a CC BY 4.0 license
- allGo – “[A]collection of stock photography featuring plus-size office workers—available at no cost—to increase the representation of plus-size office workers in media” Hosted on Unsplash Openly licensed, but not with a CC license
- Iwaria – stock photos from Africa; Images available under a CC0 1.0 license
- Redefining Women – Diverse icons of women; hosted by the Noun Project; images available under a CC0 1.0 license
- “Queer in Tech” – “We created this photo set to promote the visibility of queer and gender-nonconforming (GNC) people in technology, who are often under-represented as workers powering the creative, technical, and business leadership of groundbreaking tech companies and products”. Hosted by Flickr; images available under a CC BY 3.0 license
- Images of Empowerment – “[L]ibrary of images celebrating women’s lives and their work in 11 countries around the world”. Images available under a CC BY-NC-4.0 license.
- Wikimedia Commons LGBT Category – Collection of open images organized under various LGBT categories; Images available under different CC licenses
- openverse – An extensive library of free stock photos, images, and audio; LGBT and other diversity images based on search terms. Hosted by Creative Commons and WordPress. Images available under different CC licenses
- Open Peeps – A hand-drawn illustration library that can be used to create illustrations of diverse people. Images available under a CCO license
- Unsplash Diversity Collection – Hosted on Unsplash. Openly licensed, but not with a CC license
This resource is adapted from the University of Maryland Global Campus OER LibGuide on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in OER and it is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Additional material is from Openly Licensed Images Sites by by UTRGV Rhode Island Collage Library, licensed under CC-BY-4.0.
