I do think that overall this is an issue of interest more than access, even if you take into account lower incomes and disparate technology access. I know a lot of teenagers who manage to get on MySpace everyday hell or high water – if they had a passion for web design they would be able to find ways to hone their skills as well. I have however met a good number of young black males who treat graphic and web design as hobbies. Sometimes they will be enterprising enough to treat it like a business and start making money. Entrepreneurship itself has inherent risks that not everyone is meant for and takes a good deal of self-education and motivation to make it work. The current nature of web design requires a person to be incredibly proactive to get started, be successful, and to stay relevant. It’s still not mainstreamed enough in education to make it a solid career option for many young people, although that has been changing. A lot of non-white guys I know are content to keep web design as a casual side gig. There are a couple young guys I advise once in a while, they have been hooked up with a youth entrepreneurial program and their business has been thriving since then.

Personally, I’ve been used to the demographic imbalance in web design and IT since college and don’t think about it too much. The only thing that I experience regularly is that people tend to underestimate my skill level, but that sentiment usually ends up working in my favor. Overall I agree with commenter Śmieszne Filmiki that the biggest barriers for me in web design have been the ones in own my head.