Educational leadership, whether in PK-12 or higher education, often examine the planning of curricula and materials for equity. Due to the global pandemic that began in early 2020, the planning of instructional materials had to be reexamined due to the travel and interaction restrictions that closed most brick-and-mortar schools, colleges, and universities. Educational leaders around the globe scrambled to assist educators in what was for many uncharted methods of delivering instruction. Educators and students with access to the Internet, an online academic library, Open Educational Resources (OER) or Open Access (OA) resources had the option to continue to move forward with educational endeavors. With an increased reliance on digital materials to meet online instruction demands, those without access to these same resources were limited, if not stopped entirely, from being able to continue their studies and/or research activities. Work was already being done to promote OER and OA prior to COVID-19, however the restrictions put in place highlighted the need for equitable, online access to resources and scholarship for educators to autonomously choose from. The purpose of this article is to go further into the post-pandemic landscape and explore how increasing OER and OA and removing access barriers could increase equity by establishing the ability for teaching/learning to continue for all, regardless of the ability to attend a brick-and-mortar building and regardless of socio-economic status. The lens being used to examine the consequences of the current iniquities, as well as the benefits of decreasing these inequities, is that of self-determination theory (SDT), a macro theory of development, motivation, and well-being. SDT also provides one possible framework to promote future research around the increased production and use of OER and OA.