Who Puts the "Social" in "Social Computing"?: Using A Neurodiversity Framing to Review Social Computing Research

TL;DR

This paper critically examines social computing research involving neurodivergent individuals, highlighting its medicalization and stereotypes, and advocates for a neurodiversity perspective to create more inclusive and natural social systems.

Contribution

It introduces a neurodiversity framing to analyze social computing research, revealing biases and proposing inclusive design approaches based on critical disability theory.

Findings

Research is largely medicalized and stereotypical.

Systems often restrict natural social expression.

Neurodiversity perspective promotes inclusive sociality.

Abstract

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) have a longstanding tradition of interrogating the values that underlie systems in order to create novel and accessible experiences. In this work, we use a neurodiversity framing to examine how people with ways of thinking, speaking, and being that differ from normative assumptions are perceived by researchers seeking to study and design social computing systems for neurodivergent people. From a critical analysis of 84 publications systematically gathered across a decade of social computing research, we determine that research into social computing with neurodiverse participants is largely medicalized, adheres to historical stereotypes of neurodivergent children and their families, and is insensitive to the wide spectrum of neurodivergent people that are potential users of social technologies. When social computing systems designed for neurodivergent people rely upon a conception of disability that restricts expression for the sake of preserving existing norms surrounding social experience, the result is often simplistic and restrictive systems that prevent users from "being social" in a way that feels natural and enjoyable. We argue that a neurodiversity perspective informed by critical disability theory allows us to engage with alternative forms of sociality as meaningful and desirable rather than a deficit to be compensated for. We conclude by identifying opportunities for researchers to collaborate with neurodivergent users and their communities, including the creation of spectrum-conscious social systems and the embedding of double empathy into systems for more equitable design.