Memories of exclusion I´ll never cherish

Fragment from the She-Migrator series by Oana Maroti

The working in tourism experience is something I can now talk about, as for years it was too traumatic to make sense. When I was most scared, alone, and vulnerable entire groups were sharing with me concentrated xenophobic reactions culminating with the coordinator, who could not hold his misogynist xenophobic ideas for himself and gave me an unforgettable memory.

People around the world are working in an international context, but are they prepared for inclusion, first of all? Do we know what happens when group hate is manifested over and over? How many victims of non-inclusive work groups are, per company? Why is the human rights legislation not known in all business departments?

I had to go to an area where I used to work, and it´s still an unpleasant memory recall. I feel like having survived unnecessary pressure and total disrespect and that when I needed the most support, the reverse happened.

A break out in that opulence zone, full of skyscrapers, offices, hotels, and big stores, made finding a quiet place to enjoy your meal impossible. Around this acoustic discomfort, pollution, and technological development, the area is full, but full of people in vulnerable situations, sleeping at corners, from the banks and justice skyscrapers to the big brands and offices area. They are getting closer and closer, in desperation to be seen, but the world of people in suits goes around in parallel, in a small cubiculum of expensive life, ignoring the poor people´s existence or kicking them out. With each person on the streets, a big aporophobic and corruption dynamics is backing it.

Exclusion was always ugly to observe and that´s why in all the jobs I ever had, especially in transportation or communication ones, I was always interested in product adaptability. I´m trained as an inclusive teacher, therefore I observe and take action if the means of transportation or not adapted to wheelchair travel or if the communication is not facilitated for specific needs. If the employer is intelligent and can understand that with inclusive actions the target is getting larger and the clients will implicitly bring loyalty by responding to specific needs, and that shared experience, the product meeting its functionality that´s company culture. How many cars were sold and so on it´s just billing, quantity. The quality and the value of the product are in meeting the target's needs. The first target in automation is special needs.

From all the public transportation possibilities, the train was always inclusive compared with the new technology. The first people that need transportation methods are those with mobility problems, therefore new transportation design models that do not offer the adapted product to special mobility needs are a strange business from the start. Who lets them start and why?

During another unpleasant contract with an automatic car selling platform, I was unimpressed by the lack of knowledge of such important regulations, like chair adaptability in a new car and finally making that car an inclusive product. I had quite a list of possible clients that were left in oblivion as office ableism is quite regular. The car industry, even if it´s a new industry is anchored in mentalities that never heard about human rights or inclusion. The automotive market likes speed, engine sounds, and luscious metal, but it is so education-wise left behind that for a woman working in the field might result in grotesque. Cars enthusiasts and business owners can have horrible manners. It was like a strange world where people could call and think that offering money to the woman interlocuter is ok and of course business is business, misogynist as long as they pay a fee can keep doing the same over and over. It´s like another world, left behind of responsibilities.

In the eventuality of a more ecological and inclusive response, public transportation methods are imperative, but also is important that the car owners know they are primarily using a device for reduced mobility. During our life is more than likely that we will find ourselves in a situation of low mobility since the human body is quite fragile, so please tell me why not take into account simple human development characteristics and answer to the inclusive need, starting with the design?

Everything I´m saying I have already tried to push forward as a discussion for a new department dedicated to inclusion in each of the companies I worked for, but inclusion is still a new concept for these business mammoths, who are left to pendulate in the heights of the economy, in all their uninclusive splendor.