Court Rules Paper Money Unfair to blind

I just read this on CNN.com. Sounds like we'll need additional sleeves and pages to hold the new currency. I wonder what the BPE will do to change the currency, smaller note size maybe like fractionals, add Braille lettering or something else. What do you all think about this possible change in our currency?


Jack




Court rules paper money unfair to blind

Federal appeals court says Treasury Department is violating the law by keeping all money the same size and feel.

Last Updated: May 20, 2008: 11:19 AM EDT






WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. discriminates against blind people by printing paper money that makes it impossible for them to distinguish the bills' value, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The ruling upholds a decision by a lower court in 2006. It could force the Treasury Department to redesign its money. Suggested changes have ranged from making bills different sizes to printing them with raised markings.
The United States acknowledges that the design hinders blind people but it argued they had adapted --some relied on store clerks for help, some used credit cards and others folded certain corners to help distinguish the bills.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 that such adaptations were insufficient. The government might as well argue that, since handicapped people can crawl on all fours or ask for help from strangers, there's no need to make buildings wheelchair accessible, the court said.
The court also ruled that the United States failed to explain why changing the money would be an undue burden. The Treasury Department has redesigned its currency several times in recent years and adding features to aid the blind would come at a relatively small cost, the court said.
Other countries have added such features, the court said, and the United States never explained what made its situation so unique.

 

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thanks for the article. Can you post a link to it, or was what you posted all it said?

I dont think we need to re-design just for the blind. Leading advocates for the blind rallied against such a measure, and i would think they would know what is better for them then us folks who can see. Why should we dictate to them, when they can speak for themselves. I would feel differently, of course, if they said they did need such measures....

 

Daggarjon,

That is the entire article. It was on today's front page of the CNN.com website. It looks like the court is ordering the BPE to redesign all notes so the blind can distinguish between each different note.

Jack

 

In Canada, our notes have small raised parts in one of the corners that shows the denomination. It does not mess with the design in anyway, I am confused why american bills don't have this.

Adam

 

Isn't it also unfair to those who speak Chinese, or Korean?
How about any foreign language on earth?

If we are going to be fair, lets be fair.


Get rid of those unknown words in English, we have to be fair to all!

Just use raised dots, anyone can count, and make to sure that those who are amputees are not discriminated against, install a microchip to constantly read out the denomination.

But, that would harm bank tellers, who could have to go on disability due to the constant noise, so install mufflers on the bills for those who have to deal with money all day long. We have to be fair to all.

But, then there has to be a switch to turn off the sound, and those without hands can't do that, so each bill will come with your own private government employee who will carry the bills, tell you the denomoination and count the money (for those who can't count) for you.

Lets be fair.


But, what about those who don't speak English? Will there be enough government employees who speak, say, Ancient Aztec? After all, American currency is used in many other countries, so well have to train people in all lnaguages, since money will be spent and handed off to those who speak other languages.

We have to be fair to all.

Let's step up to the plate and be fair to all.

Come to think of it, wouldn't it be cheaper to just give eneryone who is visually impaired his or her own government agent to read the currency for them?

Lets be fair.

 

The difference is people who speak a different language can learn to speak english. Blind people cannot learn to see.

The tactile feature on canadian notes

 

I agree that the blind cannot learn to see, the above was meant not to insult but to consider the excessive political correctness that this country is going toward.


As far as others learning English, I also agree, then why, if you want to get a job with the city in LA do you have to speak Spanish, but you don't have to speak English?

 

Good point! But, you must understand the we don't know what's best for us, thankfully some lawyer at the ACLU does, thank God for those lawyers!! (sarcasim)

 

By the way, I have a close friend who is blind and he heard about this story. He said the whole idea is like an insult to him. He says he manages his currency just fine on his own.
I know his opinoin does not speak for ALL blind folks out there, just thought I'd share.

 

Some countrys have different sizes for different denominations, like the Euro for example

 

Out of curiosity, did this whole thing start from an actual complaint from a blind person (or blind people), or was this a class action lawsuit someone dreamt up on the behalf of others?

Not that I necessarily agree this is a huge concern (most blind people have adapted just fine without the help) but I agree with the court that it doesn't seem to be an undue burden to make a relatively simple adaptation such as this. No more (and probably less) than any of the security features they've added in the past few years.

After carefully considering both sides of the issue, I've come to the conclusion I don't really care one way or the other lol... wouldn't really matter to me personally which way they go.

Besides they can save money on the conversion by eliminating the $1 bill entirely and repalcing them with coins. That alone would probably pay for redesigning everything else $5 and up.

 

I'm not sure how following a federal law (one that is fairly widely applauded for it's general humanity) is considered being politically correct?
Some may see the law itself as being politically correct, IMHO, of all of the things that get the PC label, the ADA in my book is not one of them. I thankfully am not disabled, but the ADA affects my work all the time in making theaters, studios, etc assessable to those in wheelchairs, etc. It's a pain in the butt complying with the ADA, especially since most of the installations I work on are considered temporary structures, but it is one of those things that must be done for the betterment of our society.

Getting back to paper notes, wouldn't this be a good time to discontinue the $1, $2, and $5 notes and come up with some exciting tactilely different coins in those denominations that would pass the ADA....and get us collectors' juices flowing?

 

I remember this being an issue 35 years ago. I read about it in Coin World when I was a kid.

 

I am 100% for the ADA, and design my remodeling plans accordingly all the time. But this case is a bunch of hogwash brought on by folks who think they know better for someone else. To my knowledge, this wasnt started as a complaint from blind people, but rather from some over zealous nut who thinks he knows whats best for those who actually are blind. Unfortunately that nut got enough support by others to get it this far. God love Democracy lol

 

It should be possible to design a hand-held, battery-operated scanner, with audio output, for the blind to use. That would be much simpler than changing the currency for everyone.

 

Holes would work... a certain number for each denomination, in a certain order. Holes require no or little adjustment to machines (most don't care about a few holes), they won't disappear as the bill wears out, and it does not require replacement of BILLIONS of dollars worth of cash handling equipment (registers, drawers, counters, etc.)

 

I'm not saying it's the perfect solution, but I see no mention of the $40 scanners that scan the IR markings on the bill to determine it's denomination. Heck, I don't understand why these scanners aren't more common in restaurants/gas stations/etc... to detect counterfeit notes.

Since it's a barcode, The BEP could better spend it's money in developing a key chain sized scanner similar to the Cue Cat that Radio Shack handed out for free years ago. Swipe it along the back of the bill and it says the denomination. Heck, this way, they could even hand them out for free to blind people or to organizations that deal specifically with blind people. On that scale, the cost per unit could be brought down to that of what they are already paying for brochures and whatnot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat

 

In the words of President Andrew Jackson:

"The Court has rendered their opinion, now let them enforce it!"

 

That's what we have in Britain too. I don't see why you couldn't do that here. The size differences could be pretty subtle which would probably mean a lot of equiptment wouldn't need changing (teller's drawers etc).

 

You mean this thing here