Counterventions: a reparative reflection on interventionist HCI

Williams, A., Boyd, L., & Gilbert, J. E. (2023). Counterventions: a reparative reflection on interventionist HCI. Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581480

Publication date: 19 Apr 2023 Added to AutiHub: 9 Aug 2026 Type: Other Article language: English

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Publication authors
3
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 3 (33.3%)

Abstract

Research in HCI applied to clinical interventions relies on normative assumptions about which bodies and minds are healthy, valuable, and desirable. To disrupt this normalizing drive in HCI, we define a “counterventional approach” to intervention technology design informed by critical scholarship and community perspectives. This approach is meant to unsettle normative assumptions of intervention as urgent, necessary, and curative. We begin with a historical overview of intervention in HCI and its critics. Then, through reparative readings of past HCI projects in autism intervention, we illustrate the emergent principles of a counterventional approach and how it may manifest research outcomes that are fundamentally divergent from dominant approaches. We then explicate characteristics of “counterventions” – projects that aim to contest dominant sociotechnical paradigms through privileging community and participants in research inquiry, interaction design, and analysis of outcomes. These divergent research imaginaries have transformative implications for how interventionist HCI might be conducted in future.

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Cited references
79
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Cited references with an identified autistic author
8 / 79 (10.1%)
Cited author occurrences identified as autistic
8 / 201 (4.0%)
Among occurrences linked to AutiHub author records: 8 / 40 (20.0%). Distinct cited authors identified as autistic: 2 / 169 (1.2%).
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40 / 201 (19.9%)
Distinct linked cited authors: 22 / 169 (13.0%)
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32 / 40 (80.0%)
Among linked cited-author occurrences only. Across all cited-author occurrences: 32 / 201 (15.9%). Distinct linked cited authors not identified as autistic: 20 / 22 (90.9%).
6 cited bibliography entries could not be fully enriched from DOI metadata.
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