Information access and information literacy under siege: The potentially devastating effects of the proposed 2017. White House budget on already-marginalized populations in the United States. Courtney Lawrence Douglass, Ursula Gorham, Renee F. Hill, Kelly M. Hoffman, Paul T. Jaeger, Gagan Jindal, Beth St. Jean. First Monday, Volume 22, Number 10 – 2 October 2017.

“This paper explores major proposed funding cuts to the United States 2017 federal budget, how these cuts align with a neoliberal ideology, and how they ultimately diminish information access and literacy among marginalized populations including, but not limited to, the elderly, working poor, impoverished communities, people of color, elderly, chronically ill, and disabled. A great many of these effects to access and literacy would directly alter the ways in which people are able — or unable — to access and use the Internet and all of the ways in which it is essential to information and engagement. By examining the benefits of the human interest organizations that serve these populations and are in danger of losing funding, this paper examines the ways in which the proposed cuts will exacerbate existing inequities in education and opportunity in society.”