LibGuides: Social Media Accessibility & Inclusivity: Finding Diverse Images

Where to Find Diverse Images for Free

As an organization, it's important that images you use for social media represent the wide range of users you intend to reach. But if you've ever used a search engine like Google, Unsplash, or Pixabay to search for images of people (a student, doctor, teacher, etc...), you may have noticed that the majority of images are of white, able-bodied people. Certain searches, like "IT worker," also tend to have extreme gender bias. And visibly queer people are scarcely pictured in image search results. While search engines have gotten better at increasing representation in recent years, largely thanks to the critiques of scholars like Safiya Noble, they still have a long way to go.

Because of the deficit of diverse images in standard image search engines, many groups have created their own image databases to increase the diversity of representation in stock photos. The following resources all provide free-use images centering people who share a particular identity.

Women of Color (WOC) in Tech
#WOCinTech Chat started out as a Twitter chat and quickly evolved into an initiative to connect and empower WOC in the tech world. As part of this work they put together a photo shoot of real WOC technologists at work. The stock photos are meant to combat the idea that there are no WOC in the tech industry by increasing their visibility.
Plus Sized Stock Photos
Can We All Go, a company that focuses on increasing the accessibility of spaces for people of all sizes and abilities, created this free stock photo collection "of plus-size people doing normal things" to address a lack of inclusion of fat bodies in existing stock photo collections.
The Gender Spectrum Collection
The Gender Spectrum Collection is 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.
Disabled and Here Collection
This collection is a disability-led effort to provide free and inclusive stock photos shot from our own perspective, featuring disabled BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) across the Pacific Northwest.
nappy
If you were to type in the word ‘coffee’ on Unsplash, you’d rarely see a cup of coffee being held by black or brown hands. It’s the same result if you type in terms like ‘computer’ or ‘travel.’ You may find an image or two but they’re pretty rare. But black and brown people drink coffee too, we use computers, and we certainly love traveling. And that’s why we 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.
PICONI
PICONI is 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.