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Setting Diversity at the Core of HCI

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Book cover Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Design Methods and User Experience (HCII 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12768))

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Abstract

The advancing awareness of diversity in HCI is touted as laudable in addressing inequality and the digital divide. This progress however has not been reflected in HCI research. Diversity in HCI has focused on giving underrepresented users voice and confronting homogeneity. By increasing representations, though a diversity affinity is immediately visible, the deconstruction of institutionalized prejudice fails. Additionally, underrepresented voices have the unsurmountable task of representing their group. These approaches to diversity become tokenistic fixes failing to tackle the systemic causes of inequality.

In this paper, we argue for a systemic approach to diversity in HCI. We call for setting diversity at the core of HCI where human realities and experiences are embodied rather than defined by “what users must be” or “what users are not”. The paper contributes the following: a detailed overview of diversity in HCI and presents a conceptual framework for diversity driven HCI with three correlated recommendations for setting diversity at the core of HCI.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gender/Diversity in Informatics Systems (GeDIS), Research Center for Information Systems Design (ITeG), Faculty of Electrical Engineering/Computer Science, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany

    Nana Kesewaa Dankwa & Claude Draude

Authors
  1. Nana Kesewaa Dankwa
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  2. Claude Draude
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Correspondence to Nana Kesewaa Dankwa or Claude Draude .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH), Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    Margherita Antona

  2. University of Crete and Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH), Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    Constantine Stephanidis

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Dankwa, N.K., Draude, C. (2021). Setting Diversity at the Core of HCI. In: Antona, M., Stephanidis, C. (eds) Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Design Methods and User Experience. HCII 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12768. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78092-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78092-0_3

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