What’s the Difference Between Equality and Equity

People frequently use the terms “equity” and “equality” interchangeably in discussions about race and social justice. While both concepts relate to fairness, they have significant differences.

Equality provides everyone the same resources and opportunities without considering individual’s or group’s specific needs. Equity recognizes that this “one-size-fits-all” approach has disadvantages and understands that different levels of support should be provided to guarantee fairness.

What Is Equity?

The difference between equity and equality becomes clear when you understand their meanings. Equity understands that some people face different conditions or challenges and provides the specific resources and opportunities needed to achieve equal outcomes.

Examples of Equity

The following are actual cases where individuals and organizations took the initiative to promote equity:

• The Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC), in collaboration with the Boston Housing Authority(BHA), developed a program to secure public housing for pregnant women facing housing insecurity. This initiative aimed to reduce stress and improve birth outcomes and maternal health, impacted by housing instability.
• Students from the University of Washington’s (UW) Climate Risk Lab research center conducted a project to examine the financial challenges faced by tribal communities in advancing renewable energy projects.

What Is Equality?

Equality ensures that everyone is given equal opportunities and treated fairly. It means no one should face disadvantages due to their background, beliefs, birthplace, or disabilities.

Examples of Equality

Here are some real-world examples of equality:

• North Carolina’s Greensboro Health Disparities Collaborative (GHDC) group worked to reduce disparities in lung and breast cancer treatment completion between White and Black patients through community-focused solutions and partnerships.
• Google provides the same parental leave benefits to all new parents, regardless of their gender or role within the company. Whether an employee is a mother, father, or adoptive parent, they receive the same amount of paid time off to care for their child.

The Difference Between Equity and Equality

Although equity and equality aim for justice, they are different and can’t be used interchangeably. The difference between equity and equality lies in how fairness is achieved.

Equality treats everyone equally, regardless of individual needs, while equity recognizes that some people face unique challenges and require additional resources or special support to achieve an equal opportunity.

To understand equity vs equality, let’s look at this example. Imagine a race between two children of different heights. Equality gives both the same starting line, but the taller child has an advantage. Equity gives the shorter child a head start to compensate for their disadvantage (height) and guarantees they have a fair chance to compete and win.

What Areas Do Equity and Equality Apply?

Equity or equality can exist in various areas shaped by interpersonal relationships. Below are some of the contexts in which equality or equity can be applied:

Society

Equity and equality in society apply to ensuring fairness and justice in opportunities, resources, and rights. They guide the management of public institutions, the distribution of services, and the implementation of policies to promote inclusivity and reduce disparities among individuals and groups.

Education

Equitable education ensures that factors such as family background or disability don’t prevent students from reaching the minimum skill levels or their full educational potential.

Some universities use quota-based systems to reserve a percentage of university places for disadvantaged students alongside standard admissions procedures.

Workplace

Companies can promote equality and equity in the workplace by observing impartiality in recruitment, offering salaries and benefits tailored to employees’ various situations, and providing flexible work schedules for those with young children.

Online World

Two-thirds of the world’s population uses the internet, while 2.6 billion remain offline. To close this gap, governments and organizations must implement affordable internet and device policies, operate accessible and inclusive platforms and websites, and provide digital skills training.

Services

Access to services is another context where the equity vs equality battle exists. For example, everyone might have equal access to legal representation, regardless of their ability to pay. Meanwhile, communities with higher rates of chronic illnesses may receive more healthcare services than others.

How to Promote Better Digital Equity?

After understanding equity vs equality in the digital world, apply these best practices to deliver equitable online experiences for individuals with specific disabilities and circumstances:

Improve Page Speed

Ensure your website loads efficiently on slow connections to assist low-income households without wireline broadband. Evaluate performance using Google’s Core Web Vitals, improve desktop and mobile speeds, and follow image size and format rules.

Provide Better Mobile Experiences

Optimizing websites for mobile improves user experience and Google search rankings.

84% of American adults living in households earning less than $30,000 a year rely on smartphones for internet access. For better mobile experiences, apply responsive design and adapt the content based on screen sizes.

Use Inclusive Language

Use inclusive language on your website to build trust and encourage engagement. Avoid derogatory, discriminatory, or biased terms like “insane,” “falling on deaf ears,” or “blind to the facts.”

Make Sure Your Content Is Easy to Read

Your content should be clear and understandable for those with a lower secondary education level (7–9 years of schooling). If your content includes research or scientific papers, simplify them, provide summaries, or link to a glossary for key terms.

Ensure Compliance With Web Accessibility Laws

Compliance with website accessibility laws and standards helps you to make your content accessible to a broad audience and avoid hefty fines, penalties, and litigation costs.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), for example, mitigates discrimination and requires equitable access to digital services and resources for individuals with disabilities. You may need to audit your website for digital accessibility to identify the barriers and fix them.

Provide Sufficient Color Contrast

Sufficient color contrast guarantees users with low vision, low contrast sensitivity, or color vision deficiencies can read and understand your content.

WCAG 2.2 ”Minimum Contrast” guideline requires that the contrast between foreground and background colors for text and images of text be at least 4.5:1. For large text (18pt or more, or 14pt when bold), the contrast ratio requirement is lowered to 3:1.

Clearly Label Links

All links on pages or documents should be clearly labeled with relevant, concise, and descriptive text to make it easy for users to find the information they need and navigate your site. Labels must accurately describe the purpose of the link and the page or content it leads to.

Ensure Document Accessibility

To make your documents more accessible to more people, use concise headings to organize sections, add alternative text (alt text) to images, and include metadata such as author, title, and language. Remediating inaccessible documents will help fix all the issues and achieve compliance with accessibility requirements.

Ensure Keyboard Navigation and Screen Reader Compatibility

Users who can’t use a mouse, such as those who are blind or have motor disabilities, must be able to move between forms, buttons, and links on your website using the Tab key and keyboard shortcuts. Moreover, semantic HTML tags should be used so screen readers can interpret content structure and purpose properly.

Gaining insights into equity vs equality helps you contribute to creating a fairer world for all. While everyone deserves what is right, regardless of their gender, color, or race, some may need more due to their specific situations.