Towards Inclusive Infrastructures: Examining the Experiences of Gender Diverse People in University Systems

Research on gender, identity, and technology has focused on designing individual systems for inclusivity, that is, examining how systems can represent transgender, nonbinary, gender non-conforming, and other gender diverse identities in affirming ways. Less is known about how infrastructures -that is, multiple loosely connected and long-lived systems-can be made inclusive. This gap is critical to address as systems rarely operate in isolation and infrastructures are pervasive in contemporary organizations. For example, universities maintain separate systems for applications, admissions, housing, and course management that only occasionally communicate with each other. This paper steps towards addressing this gap by examining the challenges gender diverse people face in navigating such complex infrastructures. Through a qualitative study consisting of 20 interviews, we find that participants encountered challenges unique to interconnected systems-such as slow and inconsistent updates to personal information and unexpected leaks of outdated information-that together created a perpetual risk of being misgendered by both systems and other users. To navigate such challenges, participants used workarounds such as seeking help from organizational insiders, piloting identity changes on a small scale, engaging in small acts of resistance, and strategically choosing which battles to fight. Participants expressed several goals for inclusive infrastructures: quick and consistent personal data updates; transparency around non-inclusive design decisions; safe and contextual data sharing practices; and community education to facilitate broader cultural change. We discuss novel insights on identity, representation, and inclusion, and present design implications to better support gender diverse people in technical infrastructures.