Feels like a human, in an intersection of identities
Everyone has a combination of identities, and that’s the beauty of humanity. Have you ever thought about who you are as an individual? How may this acknowledgement help you to communicate with other people including your loved ones? or if you are a member of a visible minority, how the intersection of your identities and abilities may affect your life?
In this piece of writing, I will explore possible barriers to digital environments experienced by people of colour (POC) with mental health disabilities such as anxiety and depression.
People of colour & Access limitation
Communities of colour may have limited access to the internet at home. For this reason, library resources such as the internet and computer are crucial for these people. In some cases, a student and a worker who are busy during daytime hours would not be able to use library resources when needed. A physical distance from the library is another limited access to such resources. All of these make building an online and accessible community more challenging mainly during the pandemic.
People of colour & Face recognition
artificial intelligence is an emerging technology that is used in voice and face recognition. There are many concerns around using such technologies by businesses. One of which is the database bias that happens when the data used to train machine learning models doesn’t include diverse people. The information is too small or homogenous. For example, police use a camera to tracks users’ movement. This works for small groups of people because the initial training excluded people with different colours of skin and race which increases the risk of false arrest.
Mental Health & Disengagement
People with Mental health disabilities, e.g. depression and anxiety are more prone to disengagement in completing an action on a website with complicated journeys and site maps. The dark design pattern phenomenon, particularly in complicated and dead-end journeys creates a mismatch between these people and the standard processes, e.g. When anxious and depressed users want to delete or disable their accounts but cannot find the option on the navigation. The option is either hidden in the deepest level of the site, or they have to contact the call centre and wait in line to talk to a representative about a simple task.
Mental Health & Medication side effects
Medication side effects may cause additional barriers such as blurry vision and hand tremors that make such people vulnerable to any decision making and dark design patterns in the digital sphere.
People of colour who experience Mental Health disabilities
are more vulnerable to abusive comments online, which trigger their anxiety and depression. They may feel excluded from social activities and end up feeling invisible. Also, they may seek to treat their depression by navigating online communities, especially during the pandemic. To find a therapist like themselves that understands their culture and has a lived experience like them, they need an inclusive and accessible resource. According to my research, black therapists and professionals are fewer than other races, this increases the inaccessibility and barriers to treatment of such disabilities for people of colour. The marginalized people who could not build a safe online community due to limited access to technology are at higher risk of mental health disabilities.
How Design can mitigate the barriers for People of colour with mental health disorders
“People like us to advocate for us in the system”
One thing that stood out to me from Kat Holmes's talk was about considering “Design” as a verb, how to practice disciplines to bring together an inclusive design team and decide how to shape users’ experience and see the services from a human lens. The first step towards an inclusive design is to make sure we start the research with the most excluded people and build the foundation of the design around people with disabilities and visible minorities, e.g. people of colour with mental health disabilities. Another important step is web accessibility regulation and standards around mental health disabilities to better understand the dark design pattern effects.
Fixing the pipeline of access towards the mental health professional and peers through education and removing the stigma around mental health disparities. Social activities are a great way to decrease anxiety and depression by incorporating social elements into users’ journeys, where they can find POC representation to interact in a safe space. Seeing people like themselves encourages them to talk and have conversations.
References
Wong, A., & Bishari, S. (2019, December 19). EP 65: Black Mental Health. Disability Visibility Project. Retrieved February 5, 2022, from https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2019/12/01/ep-65-black-mental-health/
Hatzipanagos, R. (2019, May 2). Co-workers keep mixing up people of color in the office. it's more than a mistake. The Washington Post. Retrieved February 6, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/05/02/co-workers-keep-mixing-up-people-color-office-its-more-than-mistake/
Why is it still so hard for young people of color to get therapy? VICE. (n.d.). Retrieved February 6, 2022, from https://www.vice.com/en/article/zmpwva/why-is-it-still-so-hard-for-young-people-of-color-to-get-therapy
MacKenzie. (2021). Public Libraries Help Patrons of Color to Bridge the Digital Divide, but Barriers Remain. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 16(4), 138–140. https://doi.org/10.18438/eblip30035
Firth. (2019). Practical Web Inclusion and Accessibility A Comprehensive Guide to Access Needs (1st ed. 2019.). Apress. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-5452-3
iHeartRadio, B. L. T. &. (2021, November 10). BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+ mental health. Spotify. Retrieved February 5, 2022, from https://open.spotify.com/episode/6gng880x6wvFaolfRNHnld?si=133817647dbd496c
TEDxTalks, H. K. (2016, June 2). The importance of intersectional accessibility in activism | Hayden Kristal | TEDxMU. YouTube. Retrieved February 6, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0I9kXwxIu0
Holmes, K. (n.d.). Microsoft Design director, Kat Holmes ... - youtube.com. Retrieved February 6, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h42RThsvXxs
Chou, Ibars, Murillo, J. R. O. (n.d.). Microsoft Design. Microsoft. Retrieved February 7, 2022, from https://www.microsoft.com/design/inclusive/
