Comments on: “Judge rules paper money unfair to blind”

By: cmf252

cmf252 — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 19:38:09 +0000

Re: Your right wavemaker. What’s next: allowing people who are blind (or people with other disabilities) to sit next to you on the bus, use the same restrooms or be gainfully employed?

Yeah we wouldn’t want blind people to get the impression that they’re disabled or anything. That would be racist.

By: Deoxy

Deoxy — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 11:13:04 +0000

“Jetgirl, I’m not sure if you meant this, but you basically supportted the argument that US currency in and of itself is inaccessible to blind users.”

No, she didn’t. She specifically stated that they could properly handle CURRENCY without assistence.

She mentioned that, IN ADDITION, debit cards also helped.

That’s exactly the opposite of whta you said – that is specifically arguing AGAINST currncy being inaccessible to the blind (by literal example of blind people using it without problem).

I have a friend who knows a blind COUPLE who live alone (well, they have teenage or adult children now). They have been completely independent since before the advent of the debit/check card, handlind cash just fine, thank you.

In short, this is a PERFRECT example of “overlawyerd” – the people who are supposedly being represented are themselves opposed to the suggested remedy!

By: othell

othell — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 22:25:17 +0000

I’m just going to address a little mentioned aspect of this case. The decision that this does not put an undue burden on the government (because redesigning every bill and retooling the mints and planning the logistics of new bills is not a daunting process to begin with).

Perhaps it would not put an undue burden on the government, but the result of any changes to the size of currency will have ripple effects across private industry.

This is not a ruling that affects only the Treasury but will place a significant burden on everyone else as well.

Think of any machine that accepts bills. They all will have to be changed. Soda machines… Snack machines… Arcade games… Change dispensers… Metro Fare Card dispensers…

Not just the actual receptors with these machines either, but also the repositories within them.

Then there are the money trays at every store… At the banks… Wallets… Money counters…

One of the few things that won’t have to change are dancers’ g-strings.

That’s all just the cost of the equipment. Then there is the time to develop replacements and time lost doing the replacing and the labor involved throughout.

I don’t know about anyone else, but my sodas do not need to get anymore expensive!

By: raj

raj — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 21:52:19 +0000

The member countries of the Euro zone have solved this problem–the different denominations of bills are different sizes. All that is necessary to distinguish among the denominations is to feel them edge-to-edge.

BTW, at least Germany had the same prior to its joining the Euro-zone.

It really is not that complicated.

By: wavemaker

wavemaker — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 17:56:49 +0000

Oh yes Jay, you’re right, I am a bigot against the disabled. I hate people with infirmities — they’re so…weak.

I guess at the people at the National Federation for the Blind are too.

By: nevins

nevins — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 17:51:02 +0000

The lawyers had to hurry up with this one. We are in the waning days of cash; I have some bills in my wallet just for backup, but havn’t used cash in at least 6 months now.
One thing people have to understand is that being disabled is, well, disabling. Society is making increasing attempts to include all, but in the end, the able still will always have a leg up. The only thing left to do would be to legislate handicaping the rest of us.

By: Ken

Ken — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 16:59:27 +0000

Regardless of the merits of the case itself or the actual needs of visually imparied Americans, I’d find it extremely difficult to keep a straight face while arguing that “forcing the Treasury Department to change the size or texture of the bills would make it harder to prevent counterfeiting.” Does anyone seriously believe that the current measures employed would suddenly fail if larger denomination bills were cut with an extra 1/4 inch or so margin on one end? I guess it’s one of those things that only a lawyer could believe.

By: mmm

mmm — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 16:03:25 +0000

Jetgirl, I’m not sure if you meant this, but you basically supportted the argument that US currency in and of itself is inaccessible to blind users. Indeed, your family members solution requires more than mere access to money, but indeed requires a (I know, heaven forbid) a bank account.

While perhaps a judicial overreach, it’s not as if this was an unknown issue for decades and with very little action on the part of the Treasury (though do note that they have begun to somewhat alter the size of bills).

A more frequent way, btw, to deal with this issue is to simply request all one dollar bills.

By: John Fembup

John Fembup — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 14:25:08 +0000

At least the judge had the good sense not to order printing currency in different colors.

By: Jetgirl

Jetgirl — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 11:50:36 +0000

“To handle cash, a person who is blind must either trust the cash register attendee or bring along a seeing companion.”

This is false. Having several blind people in my family, all of which who are completely independent, I’m aware that they do not need to do either of these things to handle currency accurately. The debit card has been a help as well.