Three Tensions Between Personas and Complex Disability Identities

Literature on the challenges of building personas for marginalized populations has led to attempts to update or improve the format. Construction of personas for people with disabilities and intersecting identities are underexplored in this area. Drawing on past work on the importance of intersectionality in HCI, this paper presents results from a qualitative interview study of nine participants with a) multiple disabilities or b) a disability and one or more other marginalized identities. From these findings, the authors present considerations for designers or researchers interested in creating personas depicting users at the intersection of marginalized identities.