Technology is developed to solve a problem and make life easier. The problems that technology resolves are entirely dependent upon the engineers that develop them. Thus, the problem does not lie within the technology but rather the people who designed these products. In both articles, the technology mentioned operated to its ability. However, additional problems arose due to the design process of these machines. The TSA body scanners contain two different body scanners for the male and female gender. Who determines if the passenger is a male or female is entirely based on the judgment of an employee that presses a button that says either “male” or “female.” Therefore, many butch lesbians or transgender people set off the scanner’s alarm because the employee did not push the correct gender button. As a result, these people have to go through an additional pat down. This relates to the “Ethics in Design” reading because the scanners are not flawed; it is the people who designed them that are. The people who developed these body scanners did not take into account for transgender people or cross-dressers. As a result, if the employee selects the incorrect gender on the scanner, the alarm goes off and an unnecessary scene evolves that often times leaves these passengers embarrassed. Furthermore, in the article, Sgarro states that soap dispensers cannot detect the hand of a black person. The soap dispenser sensors are unable to differentiate between races similar to how the TSA scanners are unable to differentiate between genders. The body scanners require a person to select the appropriate body scanning option, which means that the scanner cannot decipher itself the proper gender.

The body scanner is an example of unethical design because it discriminates against transgender people and cross-dressers. The unethical aspect of this technology is due to the ability for humans to select the gender of the passenger. Employees are basing their gender judgments solely off of gender stereotypes and what they perceive a man or woman should look like. The designers of this piece of technology created it to appeal to the majority and did not consider the minority. Similar to how African-Americans are treated differently with soap dispensers, transgender people and cross-dressers experience the same thing with body scanners. To improve upon these unethical designs, the engineers of these devices should redesign the software to decipher between race and genders. With the body scanners, this device should be able to tell if whether a person is male or female, rather than having a person make the judgment. An even better solution to this would be to develop software that can scan both males and females. This would remove the whole process of determining the gender and treat the person similar to everyone else.