It seems that the ethical issues that many products have stem from the lack diversity in the steps of the design process. Without people who could understand why a particular product design might not be ideal for some minorities, there is no one to account for that in the design. For instance, in the case of the TSA screening technology, chances are that the people who designed the device were men and women who present themselves in the stereotypical male and female fashion.

The TSA screening issues with gender nonconforming people relates to the “Ethics in Design” article because it is an example of a device that is not entirely functional for a select group of people. This brings up a question of ethics because it ends up making people of this group, people who in some way do not conform to gender expectations, really uncomfortable while traveling.

Because body scanners fail to take into account all people that could possibly need to be scanned and therefore make a select marginalized group deal with unnecessary trouble, I would say that they are an example of an unethical design. Products that don’t take into account specific groups of people, especially groups that are already oppressed, and then end up making those people’s lives more difficult have to be considered unethical in some way; the product is contributing to the overall oppression of a group.

I don’t think that this problem is an inevitability. There are people who will almost always be able to go through airport security without any difficulties so there shouldn’t be people who are concerned about it every time. It’s probably possible to have a body scanner that does not have to take into account whether someone is male or female. Realistically, people traveling shouldn’t have to appear as any gender (I always travel in sweatpants and a hoodie, and a girl with short hair should be able to do the same). On top of that, people working at airports shouldn’t have to guess people’s genders and worry about making uncomfortable mistakes. Traveling would be a better experience for everyone if gender nonconforming people were allowed to go through a scanner that does not take into account gender stereotypes.

Overall, products that are tailored to a majority that does not include marginalized groups should be considered unethical. It’s astounding to me that a soap dispenser would not work for a Black person’s hand. I think the best ways to address this problem is to both make sure that a step of the design process specifically checks to make sure the product retains functionality for anyone that might use it and also to make sure that everyone has the ability to enter various design fields. There should’ve been at least one person to catch the mistake with the soap dispenser, one person to say “hey, this wouldn’t even work for me.”