Infrastructuring Care: How Trans and Non-Binary People Meet Health and Well-Being Needs through Technology

Document Title

Infrastructuring Care: How Trans and Non-Binary People Meet Health and Well-Being Needs through Technology

Document Information

• Subject Area: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Health Informatics, Marginalized Communities Research
• Keywords: Gender, Transgender and Non-Binary Health, Personal Informatics, Marginalized Health, Infrastructuring, Algorithmic Harm, Technological Harm

Research Background and Problem

• Identified Problems or Challenges:

  • Transgender and non-binary (TGNB) individuals face numerous challenges in health and well-being, including social discrimination and exclusion from healthcare services.
  • Many existing technologies fail to support this group effectively and can even cause harm, as their design and algorithms often neglect TGNB needs.
  • TGNB individuals often undergo complex physiological and psychological experiences during gender transition, which are frequently overlooked and insufficiently studied.

• Significance of the Problem:

  • Data and technology hold potential benefits for supporting TGNB health. However, tools that fail to incorporate their needs into the design process risk further marginalization and harm.
  • Understanding how this community leverages technology to address health needs is key to designing more inclusive health technologies.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • Building on prior literature, this study focuses on the relationship between technology-mediated gender exploration and health management.
  • The research aims to explore the potential stakeholder interests of this group in technology design and to promote more inclusive design approaches.

Proposed Solution

• Proposed Solution and Methods:

  • The authors conducted a cross-cultural diary study involving 64 transgender and non-binary adults living in Mexico, the United States, and India.
  • Through reflexive thematic analysis, the study explored how participants used technology to track and manage their health and well-being.
  • The research investigated specific patterns in forming "care infrastructures," including informal social ecologies, formal knowledge sources, and self-reflective media.

• Innovative Contributions:

  • Introduced three interwoven conditions—"information precarity," "informatics precarity," and "access precarity"—to reveal how marginalized health needs are shaped by technological assumptions and social environments.
  • Focused on how TGNB individuals "infrastructure" gender transition and manage health resources through technology.

• Implementation Steps and Key Techniques:

  • Collected participants' daily data using mobile diary methods and analyzed their technology usage patterns through reflexive thematic analysis.
  • Combined qualitative data (e.g., text, audio, video, and images) to generate themes.
  • The study deeply reflected on how complex socio-technical interactions influence the care ecologies of marginalized groups.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Findings:

  1. Provided a cross-cultural account of TGNB individuals' interactions with technological systems.
  2. Highlighted how technology serves as a tool for building "care infrastructures" for these individuals.
  3. Described the precarious conditions within socio-technical environments and their impact on health management and gender transition.

• Comparative Advantages Over Existing Solutions:

  • Previous studies often focused on a single type of technology or goal; this study expanded the scope to examine the overall picture of infrastructural interactions and marginalized health needs.
  • Emphasized the universality of this topic across social, cultural, and technological contexts.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • Participants reported the importance of technology in identity affirmation, gender transition planning, and health tracking, while also emphasizing its design limitations.
  • Highlighted how current technologies, through gender binarism or algorithmic assumptions, alienate or harm users.
  • Stressed the need for technological improvements through contextual and community-inclusive approaches.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations:
    • Cultural and linguistic differences may limit the interpretation of some data.
    • The global applicability of the research methodology requires further testing.
  • Future Directions:
    • Develop user experiences with more inclusive and diverse perspectives, supporting TGNB individuals through gender fluidity and dynamic UX.
    • Establish and validate technological frameworks that support TGNB health goals.
    • Focus on TGNB community collaboration to co-design solutions addressing embedded biases in technology.