How technology creates new possibilities for transgender people, and how trans experiences, in turn, create new possibilities for technology.
Mainstream technologies often exclude or marginalize transgender users. Trans Technologies describes what happens when trans people take technology design into their own hands. Oliver L. Haimson, whose research into gender transition and technology has defined this area of study, draws on transgender studies and his own in-depth interviews with more than 100 creators of technology—including apps, games, health resources, extended reality systems, and supplies designed to address challenges trans people …
How technology creates new possibilities for transgender people, and how trans experiences, in turn, create new possibilities for technology.
Mainstream technologies often exclude or marginalize transgender users. Trans Technologies describes what happens when trans people take technology design into their own hands. Oliver L. Haimson, whose research into gender transition and technology has defined this area of study, draws on transgender studies and his own in-depth interviews with more than 100 creators of technology—including apps, games, health resources, extended reality systems, and supplies designed to address challenges trans people face—to explain what trans technology is and to explore its present possibilities and limitations, as well as its future prospects.
Haimson surveys the landscape of trans technologies to reveal the design processes that brought these technologies to life, and to show how trans people often must rely on community, technology, and the combination of the two to meet their basic needs and challenges. His work not only identifies the role of trans technology in caring for individuals within the trans community but also shows how trans technology creation empowers some trans people to create their own tools for navigating the world. Articulating which trans needs and challenges are currently being addressed by technology and which still need to be addressed; describing how trans technology creators are accomplishing this work; examining how privilege, race, and access to resources impact which trans technologies are built and who may be left out; and highlighting new areas of innovation to be explored, Trans Technologies opens the way to meaningful social change.
A Unique Text at the Intersection of Gender Studies and HCI
4 Sterne
This is a unique, insightful book, using a critical studies and HCI lens to examine different trans technologies and the thoughts of their creators. Haimson luckily doesn't lean too hard on the critical studies analysis, although amorphous invocations of "capitalism" instead of the probably intended neoliberalism are still present here. At it's core, though, this book is a refreshing interrogation of what trans technology means, its essential characteristics, and the driving forces behind their development. Periodically Haimson also returns to the non-systemic changes that these technologies bring, as well as the problems with creators building solutions for themselves. Highly recommend
