Are you working within IT/Computer Science and diagnosed with ASD/ADD/ADHD and are you willing to share your experiences in a research project?
Please reach out for our research project focusing on Critical Making: Invisible Groups in Computer Science Intersecting Neurodiversity and Gender
We are exploring the individual experience of neurodivergent IT professionals who belong to historically underrepresented genders in IT/Computer Science (CS).
We want to challenge existing stereotypes on neurodiversity and CS by creating alternative narratives and designing interventionist artefacts demonstrating and celebrating the diverse nature produced by neurodiversity in CS as a vehicle for innovations.
Following recent neurodiversity studies, such as Critical Autism Studies, we center the importance of intersectional approaches to neurodiversity to ensure the inclusion of neurodivergent individuals who are “invisible” because they are often ignored or forgotten in research studies and advocacy projects[1].
We are interested in learning about how intersecting factors, e.g. gender, influence the individual neurodivergent experience in IT/Computer Science.
We are looking for people to participate in interviews to provide us with insights into the individual experience of neurodivergence in CS. We will use these insights as a foundation for developing Design Artefacts (see FemTech.dk & Atariwomen.org) using digital and analogue materials to introduce within the domain and profession of CS fostering interventions. Design artefacts:
(1) challenge the taken-for-granted assumptions about computer science and
(2) produce alternative narratives of computer science, by
(3) embedding a story into the design while
(4) allowing for interactive opportunities that trigger curiosity[2]
We are looking for individuals with the following characteristics:
- Neurodivergent diagnosis (ASD/ADD/ADHD)
- IT professionals or people with IT/CS education background working in a different area than IT
- Members of the LGBTQ+ community (e.g. transgender, non-binary) or cisgender female
Interviews will be individual, take 60-90 minutes, and be online or in person (Copenhagen, Denmark) at a time and place appropriate for you. The language is Danish or English. The collected data will be anonymized and stored according to the data-protecting guidelines of the University of Copenhagen.
[1] Intersectionality Within Critical Autism Studies: A Narrative Review
[2] Diversity in Computer Science. Design Artefacts for Equity and Inclusion
If you are interested in participating or if you have any questions, please contact Research Assistant Ellie Thrane Christiansen at etc@di.ku.dk .
This study is part of the FemTech.dk Research Program at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Copenhagen (DIKU), led by Professor Pernille Bjørn. To know more about FemTech.dk please visit the website: Femtech.dk .