AI Equity Lab founder Lee argues that a digital divide persists in the United States due to race- and place-based discrimination. Her book notes three decades of federal efforts to foster digital equity, with particular attention to the Biden administration’s policies and their limitations. Millions of Americans, especially people of color and those who live in low-income rural and urban areas, lack affordable broadband or high-speed internet access, and which prevents people from finding jobs, working remotely, accessing telehealth services or public benefits systems, doing homework, or even using modern farm equipment. Plus, analog and in-person services have diminished, leaving folks without broadband in the lurch. Lee recounts her travels around the country interviewing people impacted by the digital divide and recalls her time as a computer lab manager at a low-income residential tower in Chicago. This thorough narrative rethinks the digital divide from the lens and considerations of race and place. It’s sure to inform debates and directions in public policy, industry, and civil society, including libraries.

Library Journal

Dr. Nicol Turner Lee understands that the digital divide is not just a technology issue, it's a people issue, and a civil rights issue. Through engaging vignettes and conversational prose, this critically important book exposes the stark reality of life for those on the wrong side of digital opportunities. Turner Lee deserves commendation for bringing this pressing issue to the forefront, sparking essential conversations, and inspiring action towards a more connected America. As we enter the AI era, it is more vital than ever that policymakers, community organizations, and industry work toward a more inclusive future.

Larry Irving, former assistant secretary U.S. Department of Commerce

Digitally Invisible is a phenomenal must-read for those seeking to understand how the lack of online access is a historical by-product of long-standing systemic inequalities.

Aldon Morris, Northwestern University; author of The Scholar Denied: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology

A timely revelation about technology’s erasure of certain communities.

Bishop Leah Daughtry, coauthor, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics

No one writing today knows the story of the many digital divides in America better than Nicol Turner-Lee. In this magnificent book, Dr. Turner-Lee weaves personal narrative with careful study to reveal what we need to know about the divisions in our society in terms of access to new technology. Today at the forefront of the national debates about technology, Dr. Turner-Lee has given us a great gift in this form of this book.

John Palfrey, president, John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation

For decades, Nicol Turner Lee has been deeply committed to the issues of digital equity and their effects on our society. With academic rigor and unbridled passion, she illuminates the high stakes of addressing this digital disparity. Turner Lee has been a colleague and adviser through countless convulsions of technology and policy, and I count her among the voices I am always ready to listen to when serious policy issues are being debated.

Michael K. Powell, former chairman, Federal Communications Commission