I mean, it’s not even clear what even turning this into a “world” problem would involve, nobody building buildings about 3 stories?
I personally find the “It’s always a you problem” attitude very much an old school, “tough it out” attitude that makes me think someone is from a previous era. My belief is that society would be a lot better & more inclusive if we always strived to make reasonable accommodations for those who would benefit from them.
There can be an enormous debate over where the line is drawn at “reasonable” but I find that’s not the debate that people usually get drawn into, it’s mainly one where some people find even the concept of “reasonable” to offend their personal sensibilities.
I always like to draw analogies between mental and physical ailments because society still treats physical ailments as “more real” unfortunately. Let’s talk a look at how society has largely evolved in the treatment of allergies, which can be roughly analogized as the body reacting “irrationally” to certain nutrients.
There definitely still is the attitude of “your allergies are your own business to manage only” but that’s become a distinctly minority view over the years. We’ve had schools go peanut free and airlines, as a matter of policy, request that people don’t consume any peanut products if there’s a sensitive person on the plane. We’ve distributed epipens to strategic locations in case someone suffers from a sudden anaphylactic attack. Restaurant menus nowadays routinely label which items are gluten free and staff are generally trained to identify which common allergens are in which dish and the protocol to ask someone if they’re unsure. We’ve also seen, for example, entire offices willing to switch to scent free detergents/shampoos and forgo cologne because someone in the office having a scent sensitivity. These efforts are patchwork and inconsistent but it’s undeniable that we’ve seen a general, societal evolution on this issue.
There was a lot of pushback then to these efforts and still pushback now but what we discovered was that a lot of the pushback was because people treat change as scary but once these systems get put in place, they’re largely routine and people are happy to be able to provide “reasonable” accommodation to a diverse range of eaters. I think especially on the corporate side (company cafeterias, catered events, conferences etc.), you’ve seen a lot of innovation and push since company employees don’t have a choice of where to dine and there’s real money involved in making sure people don’t feel left out so you can attract the best talent. At the same time, everyone knows you can’t accomodate everyone and a line has to be drawn somewhere and people are generally tolerant that not all their dietary preferences are accommodated as long as you show a genuine commitment to trying.
My attitude is that I didn’t wake up this morning and make you have a phobia and you didn’t wake up this morning to make my day worse so if there’s a reasonable accommodation I can make to make your life a bit easier, I’m happy to do it. If you need me to cross the street because you have an irrational fear of dogs, sure, happy to do it, it’s no skin off my nose. If you want to meet me at a ground floor coffeeshop instead of my high rise office because you have a fear of heights, sure, let’s try that. Let’s at least experiment with accomodations before dismissing them out of hand as “too unreasonable”.
I want to live in a world where people feel comfortable expressing their irrational phobias so we can work together to find a way for us all to be happy rather than feeling the stigma means that they alone have to find solutions in order to not bother other people. It’s a long way to get there though, there’s still such a pervasive element of shame around mental health that needs to be overcome. Sadly, we’re still a long ways away from that world so my attitude is whatever can help get us there sooner, I’m in support of.
