Centering queer knowledge paradigms in designing and implementing health information and communication technologies

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on findings from two studies focused broadly on the health information practices of queer persons in the American South. The first study consists of semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 65 queer community leaders and members, focusing on their responses to identifying ICT-related barriers to health information. The second study is a participatory design project in which queer individuals received Community Health Worker (CHW) training and certification. As part of their coursework, these CHWs collaborated with health sciences librarians to create an informational resource focused on an issue facing the queer community. By combining the two studies, we offer additional evidence of the cisnormative and heteronormative biases entrenched within ICTs in health contexts and illuminate how communities radically repurpose, or queer, ICTs to uplift and center themselves for health promotion. Findings inform a framework for queer-centered design addressing the importance of affective value within ICTs for development.

KEYWORDS:

• Information and communication technologies
• queer populations
• liberatory design
• qualitative research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Institute of Museum and Library Services [grant number LG-246360-OLS-20].

Notes on contributors

Travis L. Wagner

Dr. Travis L. Wagner's primary research and teaching interests include critical information studies, queer archives, and LGBTQIA + advocacy in sociotechnical systems. Their research examines how these communities produce and create identity in opposition to sociotechnical systems that limit and essentialize those identities. Additionally, Wagner works with various community organizations to build and maintain digital collections reflective of complex, often silenced histories.

Vanessa L. Kitzie

Dr. Vanessa Kitzie studies the information practices of marginalized groups, with a focus on LGBTQ + people and communities. Her research findings inform how information centers, such as libraries, and systems can better serve these individuals. Kitzie's work is interdisciplinary, spanning library and information science, communication, sociology, and critical studies.