Bias towards otherness is a reality in platforms or applications, and can be discriminatory and often detrimental towards minority groups, for example in gender. Is this bias introduced already by design, as part of the software engineering methodologies? And can this bias be explored, mitigated and inclusiveness increased?
This is the problem tackled in the master research project by Marcel Stelte, focusing on bias in software design, towards members from the LGBT+ communities, who are often under-represented in many aspects of Society. This study is aligned with SDG5: Gender Inclusiveness.
The study shows that non-heteronormative requirements are rarely considered and insufficiently addressed in both, scientific research and software engineering. Based on requirements collected from the target communities, a design for an inclusive requirements engineering methodology and software engineering is proposed. The study also shows that, although some ideas how to increase inclusivity exist, these are yet to be applied and implemented in practice. The biases explored and the methods proposed in this study could be extended to meet the needs of other marginalized communities.
Inclusivity Issues and Potential Biases against LGBT+ in Software Design (2024) Master thesis by Marcel Stelte.