Development and Application of Destigmatizing Design Guidelines in Sexual Health-Related Technologies

Session Presenter: Dr. Abdul-Fatawu Abdulai, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, University of British Columbia

Session Overview: 

Technologies are increasingly used as complementary tools in managing sexual health-related conditions, yet many technologies designed to reduce stigma actually increase or perpetuate sexual health-related stigma. Despite stigma being a major issue in sexual health, how this concept is understood and addressed in the context of digital health technologies remains unknown. In this presentation, I will discuss my recent research on the development and application of destigmatizing design guidelines based on a trauma-informed care framework. These guidelines are meant to serve as a guiding framework to support software designers to create destigmatizing technologies. This presentation will conclude with a call for a trauma-informed user-centred design, where trauma-informed, stigma-specific emotional and content-related design guidelines should be prioritized during sexual health technology design.

Bio: Dr. Abdul-Fatawu Abdulai is an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia School of Nursing. He has a BSN from Ghana, an MSc from Norway, and a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia. Dr. Abdulai conducts research on health informatics, human-computer interaction and health technology design. His program of research seeks to explore how principles of human-computer interaction and trauma-informed care approaches can be leveraged to address inequities in sexual and reproductive health access for marginalized populations. He primarily conducts informatics-related research on endometriosis-associated sexual pains, sexually transmitted infections, and sexual health-related stigma.