Who We Are

We believe everyone deserves access to the information

The Information Equity Initiative (IEI) is a nonprofit organization committed to closing the global digital divide.

Millions of people live in places where the internet is slow, unreliable, or entirely unavailable. That gap limits access to education, health information, job training, civic resources, and vital emergency communication.

IEI works to remove those barriers by making high-quality digital content available everywhere, even without the internet.

Our Mission

To ensure that every learner, family, and community can access the information they need to thrive - no connectivity required.

Our Approach

Building a smarter model for access: offline-first, delivery-agnostic, community-centered.

Instead of trying to extend traditional internet infrastructure, an expensive and slow process, IEI helps partners bypass the connectivity barrier altogether.

Our offline-first system combines:

• Equalizr™, a platform for curating digital learning and dashboards
  
• Partner-operated delivery, using tools like datacasting, satellite,cellular or hybrid networks
  
• The Equalizr™Edge, which makes content work seamlessly on the ground
  

This model is cost-effective, resilient, and scalable across schools, health systems, correctional facilities, and communities in crisis.

Why We Exist

Connectivity is not the same as access.

The digital divide is more than a technical challenge, it’s a structural one. Even where the internet exists, it is often:

• Too expensive
  
• Too unreliable
  
• Too slow
  
• Unavailable during disasters and outages
  

For many communities, waiting for traditional infrastructure to catch up means waiting years.
IEI exists to ensure they don’t have to.

How We Work

Deep partnerships. Local context. Sustainable deployment.

IEI collaborates closely with governments, school districts, NGOs, and community organizations to design solutions that work for real people in real environments.

Our work includes:

• Understanding local constraints and goals
  
• Helping partners curate relevant content in Equalizr™
  
• Working with customers to choose the right distribution model
  
• Deploying and supporting the Equalizr™Edge
  
• Training partners to manage and expand their systems independently
  

IEI’s goal is not to own the technology, it’s to empower communities to use it.

Where We Work

IEI supports deployments across the U.S. and internationally, serving:

• Rural communities
  
• Remote regions
  
• Underserved urban neighborhoods
  
• Correctional facilities
  
• Disaster-affected areas
  
• Health systems and frontline providers
  

Our model adapts to each environment, meeting communities where they are.

Our History

A solution born from crisis — and built for equity.

IEI was founded in 2021 by three PBS member organizations who witnessed firsthand how the COVID-19 pandemic widened the digital divide. When schools shifted online, thousands of students within their viewing areas suddenly had no way to participate. Many families didn’t have home internet, and entire communities were cut off from the digital learning that students elsewhere could access.

The founding stations saw a deep inequity: the very communities they served were being disproportionately harmed by lack of connectivity and limited access to timely information.

To address this urgent need, they developed the first version of Equalizr™, a platform designed to deliver high-quality learning content to students without requiring internet access. What began as an emergency response quickly became a broader mission: ensuring that equitable access to digital information is possible anywhere.

Today, IEI continues that work, expanding beyond education to support health, corrections, emergency response, and community resilience, still driven by the same belief that sparked its creation:

Information access is a right, not a privilege.

Our Vision

A world where access to information is universal.