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Judge: make bills recognizable to blind »
Posted by: TechnologyExpert 1 year, 9 months agoThe government discriminates against blind people by printing money that all looks and feels the same, a federal judge said Tuesday in a ruling that could change the face of American currency.
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Comments: 34
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ekklesiawarrior
Nov. 29, 2006, 7:34 a.m.This is about time, long overdue.
The size of bills according to value would help.
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1-2-Oscar
Nov. 29, 2006, 10 a.m.Paper money does not "discriminate" against the blind or anyone else. However, it does not accomodate the special needs of a significant number of people.
The issue then, is not one of ending discrimination, but whether we can reasonably meet the needs of everyone. I think that we should do so whenever possible and practicable, and that includes devising paper money which is useful to the blind. But it is wrong to present every inequity as the result of deliberate discrimination.
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MattSparkes
Nov. 29, 2006, 10:18 a.m.Websites (in the UK at least) have to be accessible by law, why not bills? I think this should have been done a long time ago.
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nakedtruth
Nov. 29, 2006, 3:21 p.m.There has been technology around for YEARS that allows paper money to be digitally scanned. This is ridiculous. It's just another attempt by the NWO to take over the money supply. You just wait. The "solution" is going to be RFID chips that will take away the privacy of cash.
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ratoncitaverde
Nov. 29, 2006, 10:51 a.m.yeah im surprised nobody has done anything about this sooner. i have a friend who only has 15% of her vision. while she can read blown up books and text with a sharply contrasting background color, she cannot read the numbers on money. when she goes shopping she really has to hope that people give her the correct change because she cannot see it herself. i think maybe thicker, plastic-y money (like australian currency) would be affective in the sense that it could have braile punched into it or something. it would be easier than having to read numbers up close only because i dont think anyone wants money that close to their face all the time. different sized bills or colors sounds good too; american money is a little boring in comparison these days. i also agree that this is not discrimination, just long overdue. sort of makes me feel guilty for not thinking of it sooner myself.
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froggs09
Nov. 29, 2006, 2:55 p.m.I'm not trying to be mean or hateful just curious. If she can't read the numbers on the bills, how can she read the small numbers on price tags or prices on grocery shelves? Maybe it has to do with color of the bills or something, prices on items are pretty small.
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mozzer
Nov. 29, 2006, 11:12 a.m.Years ago an elderly guy was taking forever at an ATM machine. He eventually asked me, A TOTAL STRANGER, to read out the numbers for him since the screen was soo dimly lit. I did the entire transaction for him!
He wasnt totally blind, but his vision was shot. Talk about helplessness.
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johnb300m
Nov. 29, 2006, 5:02 p.m.it's reassuring to know there are people out there, like you, who would help someone out in this instance. And not rob them blind.
.....i couldn't resist :-)
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joeblowe
Nov. 29, 2006, 11:12 a.m.My mother suffered this also. She managed. Her problems were more related to an uncontrollable urge to shop than with an inability to identify currency denominations, however. {;>D)=. It's a rare cashier indeed that will deliberately short change a blind person. I don't recall that it EVER happened to my mother. Far as I know.
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deathray
Nov. 29, 2006, 11:17 a.m.When I had my first exacerbation of th MS, I was blind, and it was really difficult to operate independently.
The ATM was a challenge.
Menus in restaurants, and in fact, eating out was a challenge.
Money was a question of trusting the integroty of other people. You give up a lot of control.
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joeblowe
Nov. 29, 2006, 11:07 a.m.Soon, EVERYTHING we see, feel, do; everywhere we go, it will ALL be made or designed specifically to accomodate the smallish minority of people with "special" needs. There will be nothing left for "normal" people. I've got nothing against reasonable accomodation of citizens with various handicaps, but to change the entire currency system of a nation? Jesus, get a grip! That's just not reasonable. SOMEHOW or another, they are getting by now, aren't they? Is this REALLY such a big problem that we need to change our entire currency system to fix it? I doubt it. Think of the cost -- my god, it's going to cost BILLIONS, if not TRILLIONS of dollars to re-fit every single machine that accepts folding US currency - everywhere in the entire world. And if you make the bills different sizes or thicknesses, it probably will NOT be just a software fix like the redesigned current bills. It'd probably be cheaper to just assign every blind person an assistant.
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1-2-Oscar
Nov. 29, 2006, 11:14 a.m.I disagree. As I stated above, I think that we SHOULD accomodate the special needs of all persons whenever it is both possible and practicable, and that certainly includes redesigning our money. I do, however, object to the judgement which characterizes our current system as "discrimination." This is not simply a semantic objection. By determining that "discrimination" exists, the judge has changed the legal parameters of the case, and inferred a "right" upon those who are legally blind which did not heretofore exist. This is nothing short of "legislating from the bench" on a subject which should properly be left in the hands of Congress.
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MattSparkes
Nov. 29, 2006, 12:02 p.m.I think that's harsh. When the time comes to replace systems, they should be redesigned with all in mind. I realise that sometimes this may cost, but it's the price you pay for living in an inclusive society.
I hope this is never the case, but if you or I ever became handicapped in some way I would hope that others would do what they could to make life easier for us.
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kctrixter
Nov. 29, 2006, 12:37 p.m.I wouldn't think putting brail behind one of numbers would disrupt things all that much
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joeblowe
Nov. 29, 2006, 4:25 p.m.How thick would that make the bill? Would it still work properly in ATMs and pop machines? Probably not - without replacing millions of mechanisms. Which would doubtless cost BILLIONS of dollars. My conclusion: cost vs benefit doesn't pass the test.
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random1734
Nov. 29, 2006, 1:11 p.m.Joeblowe,
We have redesigned our money twice in the last few years. Fist it was the twenties with the big heads on them, then it was the twenties with the multi color monopoly look to them with the side strip that can be read by holding the bill up to the light.
Now, if we can do that we can certainly change the size fairly easily. Changing the vending macinines is easy. Just copy what the Brits have in theirs. They have various denomonations and you can get what you want from their machines. (at least I never had any problem) I beleive you can get 10 and 20 pound notes from their atm's. Whats the big problem. It will stop a lot of the tellers from saying you only gave them a ten when you actually gave them a twenty because the bill will be bigger. No big deal in the long run.
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joeblowe
Nov. 29, 2006, 4:23 p.m.Who will PAY to refit the millions of machines that will need the new mechanisms? Not me. How about you? Keep in mind, it'll doubtless cost BILLIONS of dollars. Not to mention buying all new presses for the mint -- and those type of presses are not cheap either. This is just not NECESSARY -- or at least not sufficiently necessary to justify the horrendous expense. Sorry, it just isn't.
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rickcb
Nov. 29, 2006, 1:57 p.m.I've been legally blind for 17 years, and I never had problems with the money until they came out with the new bills! I could see just enough to make out the old bills. People who are totally blind can mark their money in braile themselves right now. Printing bills with braile already on the bill would be impracticle...the bumps flatten out with just a little handling.
I really don't think that anything needs to be done; just give a blind person a hand if they ask...it's just that simple. We don't want a hand out...just a hand.
Now if you really want to help the blind, and a plethora of others...support stem cell research!
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JohnChasWebb
Nov. 29, 2006, 3:57 p.m.Solution: Raised (embossed) lettering
Using the "In God We Trust" inscription ...
Raised "In" for one dollar bills
Raised "God" for five dollar bills
Raised "We" for ten dollar bills
Raised "Trust" for twenty dollar bills
Raised "In God" for fifty dollar bills
Raised "We Trust" for hundred dollar bills
It is an easy and simply solution.
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johnb300m
Nov. 29, 2006, 5:14 p.m.Sorry, that whole phrase should be taken OFF our money. The same argument can be made that if our money is discriminating against the blind, then this phrase is definately discriminating against all the Hindus, Atheists, Pagans etc.
If we're redesigning our money, then let's start fresh.
Besides, who's trusting in God? It sure isn't the people who love this money the most, i.e. the Bush administration and all the Corporate big wigs, and especially Wall Street.
I'm thinking, from a design standpoint, that our money's size and shape doesn't have to change at all. It's already cloth, two pieces sandwiched together with security ribbons. If we just insert some Braile tiles between the cloth parts, that'll be enough. It'll be small, helpful to the blind, and able to use all the current readers today, while being still flexible and foldable.
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Papiann
Nov. 29, 2006, 4:17 p.m.It takes a lot of chutzpah to contend that the issuance of paper money by the US Treasury somehow "discriminates" against the blind. It takes even more for a United States District Judge to agree with that contention. Fortunately, we do have appellate courts.
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gary49085
Nov. 29, 2006, 6:44 p.m.My mother in law would like to get this judge. She's trying to sue FORD, GM, and the US Government for discrimination for not building cars and highways that make it easy for blind people to drive. Fortunately she lives 3 states away from me.
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7heaven
Dec. 9, 2006, 6:28 p.m.I disagree with everyone of the comments because everyone are 20/20 sight and they are not looking at the other side of the coin to know how we feel about it. If some of you try to blindful your eyes and then had someone give you some denomination money without telling you what is the denomination of the bill and then you tell me how you feel?
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