Creating Responsible Designers: Recognizing and Responding to Professional Immunity Claims

Design educators see the need for responsible designers but often disagree over how these individuals should behave or how they might encourage their students to become ethically aware practitioners. With this dichotomy in mind, this essay examines professional moral responsibility from the standpoint of immunity claims. Specifically, it shows how designers attempt to minimize their moral culpability by using pardons arising from role morality or collective responsibility. The essay also shows the effect these claims have on the environment where design students regularly work. The discussion gives design educators new starting points to consider for more nuanced departmental, curricular, and classroom responses to develop and graduate responsible designers.