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Judge Says U.S. Money Violates Rights of the Blind
An anonymous reader writes, "The United States is one of the few countries in the world whose currency isn't distinguishable by blind people. Most other nations use raised text, different-sized bills, or other methods to assist blind people in spending their money. If a recent decision by a federal court in D.C. survives appeal, however, that will soon change. Under Sec. 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, federal programs cannot deny 'meaningful access' to people with disabilities. Because blind people are unable to distinguish U.S. currency without assistance, the court held that they are denied meaningful access to their own money. U.S. District Judge James Robertson ordered the Treasury Department to come up with ways for the blind to tell bills apart. He said he wouldn't tell officials how to fix the problem, but he ordered them to begin working on it." How Appealing notes that Judge Robertson opened the door to a speedy appeal of his ruling.
Well, you have to carry it around, but there are machines out there that when a bill is scanned through them, will report it's value. So, is there really a need to redesign the bills so that they're accessable to the blind?
US currency is the easiest to forge in the world. You take a $1 bill, wash it clean and reprint it with a $100 bill. This will really increase the costs to forgers, and they should sue the treasury for loss of earnings.
The bills in the US are difficult to distinguish under conditions other than blindness, it's about time we caught up with the rest of the world. We make coins different shapes, sizes and textures, why not bills.
I can see quite well with glasses, and this very thing has annoyed me plenty of times. Why the hell are all our bills the same size, shape, and color? :)
Make them more distinct, and you'll speed up all cash transactions.
If nothing else the fast food industry will thank you
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Then blind people can carry around a conveniently sized RFID reader.
Just swipe past the reader and it'll tell you how much money is in your wallet. Or is that the amount in the next person's wallet? Ok, forget it.
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China are hardly alone here! For example Euros and Pounds Stirling are both use different sizes for different amounts.
Exactly what they should do. Most currencies today are done like that, stacking currency is only done in the same bill, so you can tell the difference. Hence most other currencies uses different colours for each note.
The US is behind.
Clicked pie.
Why is the Treasury Department appealing this ruling? They should embrace it and start solving the problem.
Who exactly is harmed with this decision? I don't even see why it went to court in the first place.
The cost to retool the machinery is significant. I don't know where they'd be able to scrape together that sort of cash.
I always did wonder how, in the U.S., blind people dealt with money. I ended up meeting a friend of my father's who was blind, so I asked him. He told me that he has someone (someone who can see, obviously) fold his money a certain way -- singles get folded in half, 5's got folded into an L-shape, 10's got folded another way and so on so that he always knew what denomination of money he was taking out of his wallet.
Ramps built into buildings for wheelchairs make it easier to get heavy gear in and out. Braile on ATM keyboards and lift buttons make it easier to distinguish between keys. Audio-tactile devices on pedestrian crossings provide a better UI for people regardless of whether they can see or not.
Trust me. US currency will be better for everybody if it accomodates blind people.
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Scratch and sniff.
Make each bill smell like something else. Make a five smell like coffee, since thats what a coffee at starbucks costs. Ten smells like pizza. Twenty smells like chinese food, and a hundred smells like fine leather.
The one doesn't smell like a damn thing, since you can't do much with it anyway.
Accessibility of the physical dollar to the blind is the least of the Treasury's problems. How about addressing it's declining value?
Also, speaking as a business owner, changing the bill's size would cost me time and money. No thanks!
Or some easily distinguishable raised section?
this has the added benefit of adding an extra anti-forgery mechnaism.
About 8 years ago I working in a building that had a blind man (none of this legally/partially blind bs) running the convience stand. He showed me one day how he determined the value of the currency handed to him. He felt the ridges on the corners of the bills. He could also feel the patterns of the faces.
Pull out an old style $1 from your wallet. This the type of bill he was working with at the time. The black ink is slightly raised. The newer bills have slightly raised black ink too with different patterns. Run your finger nail across them to feel the ridges.
Come to think about it, ATMs must be nigh on impossible to use too.
Inserting the card and entering a PIN sounds doable blind - but then you're presented with screens to navigate via soft keys (and it's different between ATMs). No chance.
Funny the things us sighted people take for granted.
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- In a taxi
- to pay for a newspaper costing less than a dollar
- For that round of drinks in a bar (well, OK, maybe that one)
- To give a minor donation to a charity you approve of
I run nearly cashless, but I still can't do without it. And, as an example of the problems with US currency, I once, on a business trip to the states, tipped a waiter $100. Fortunately he took pity on this rather tipsy foriegner and pointed out my mistake.Oh, and by the way, if you come to my home poker game, bring cash!
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
and turn it into a coin. Not this half-assed production of a few coins and predominantly bills. Get it over with and make it purely coins. It'll make vending machines more convenient. Coins are easily distinguishable.
On mony, just have an imprinted (raised) mark whereever the denomination number is printed. It doesn't have to be elaborate - just dots like braile.
I'm surprised this didn't come sooner with the Americans with disabilities act, or some such.
On a trip to the states a while back, in a dimly lit strip club, I accidentally gave several $20 bills to a stripper instead of $1s, got a bit more than I bargained for. Wouldn't say it was a waste exactly, but you can't claim that shit back on expenses!
Oh no... it's the future.
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Why sure, make all your money electronic, where the only proof of your hard earned money is just digits on a computer somewhere, every single little transaction you make logged and tracked, where the bank can freeze it for little reason, soon a profile of ALL your spending habits is out in the open for all agencies to see. What a great idea!
This is just a really poor decision that should be blocked by the next court up the chain. Reading the decision the judge goes into how bad it is that the bill are all the same and how it places a hardship, which it does. However devices are available which allow around which allow the money to meet the law. The judge should of told the people sueing that they should go take it up with thier congressmen; instead of doing this stupid soapbox speech.
Some other decision by him:
Private unions cannot expell members who spread "falsehood and misrepresentation" because that breaks the members freedom of speech.
Has through out a few cases for companies giving expensive gifts to government officials.
In various court cases has just ignored major case points on various parties and ruled based on older laws that had been superceded.
Ain't going to happen. Europe does it (as well as integrating a whole bunch of additional anti-counterfeit measures), so it must be un-American. Never mind the blind, God (with a capital G) must hate them or they wouldn't be blind, right ? Also, it could help the terrorists. Dollar notes are just fine the way they are.
blind people are completely incapable of judging size anyway as it has no meaning to them; theirs is a world without size, colour, distance or space.
I can agree with you on colour, but without size, distance or space? I don't think so; they'd have trouble doing anything at all if they couldn't perceive those. Check out this guy.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
At the beginning of 2002 vast swathes of Western Europe managed to change not just the size and shape of their notes but introduced a completely new currency at the same time. In Germany (and possibly other places) they even managed to fix it so that ATMs gave out Deutschmark right up until midnight on Dec. 31, 2001 and as soon as 2002 rolled over, pumped out shiny new Euro notes.
Other countries such as the UK regularly replace their currency designs, usually every 10 - 15 years or so.
If the US did the same, it would benefit maybe not just blind people but keep e.g. the North Korean counterfeiters on their toes.
and for more improvement, we could print the value of the card on the outside of the card. and have a bunch of cards in varying amounts of money so if you lose one you don't lose all your money. we could make them green to distinguish them from other cards. maybe put some pictures of dead presidents on them.
1. Use hole-punching so blind can read bills.
2. Punch the $100 hole pattern in current $1 bills.
3. Profit!
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That's funny - the EU countries had no problem changing their vending machines around once the Euro came. They didn't even change the machines, the money accepting mechanism is modular (woah!).
Keeping the $1 is costing money for taxpayers. If it becomes standard, vending machines will start accepting it fast. The government has the power in this case of the chicken or the egg.
This is modded 'funny', but instead I would mod it 'horrifying'. This is EXACTLY how the system would be exploited. The only use for this system is to make it so blind people don't need to ask for help to verify the money is legit. This con would then make it so they still need to ask for help. How did anything improve?
Okay, I suppose if they want to count the money in their wallet, and they KNOW it's all legit, this would help. But they each probably already have a system for that, anyhow. Different folds, dog-ears, etc. At the expense of the whole of the United States, we can help them NOT ONE BIT.
Sounds great, let's do it.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
But the solution to the aforementioned problem is to make the highest currency bill have the least holes. Therefore, you could turn a $100 bill into a $1 by punching holes, but not vice-versa. There are other problems with the idea, of course.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
That's obviously why they won't tell them WHAT to do, just to do it. And there isn't even a need to change the reader, most probably. A simple embossing of a small area of the bill will be sufficient, I should think. There wouldn't be any need for any machinery changes to handle a different embossing or texture - it wouldn't need to be used for "verification" of the bill in an electronic device, just so that a blind human can tell the difference between them (the issue of whether blind people can spot a forged 20 from any country is a different question altogether).
And this is something that I've always questioned about the US currency - in the UK we have different designs, patterns, textures, embossing, sizes and colours on each of our denominations. It doesn't generate any problems in terms of carrying or using the money and blind people can probably tell quicker than a sighted person what denomination the note that they have in their pocket is. I've always wondered how the bloody hell you are supposed to tell US bills apart if you are blind.
Incidentally, coins in the UK are similar to our notes - different sizes, metals, embossings, shapes etc.. I think almost every country has done this with coins, though, even if only for reasons of economy (e.g. the 1p coin not costing more than 1p to produce).
...But my great grandfather, who went blind at 60 to Glaucoma, was able to identify a denomination with 100% accuracy. It was a dinner-party trick that always delighted the crowd. He lived until 90 and, while I'm not sure if this was an acquired skill, as long as I knew him (the last 10 years of his life), he was never wrong. So there must be SOMETHING to it. I always speculated that it could've been that he could actually feel the boundries of ink in the paper, or something like that. I once thought that he was just guessing based on how worn the bill was, but crisp bills worked just the same.
Also, this was with the pre-clinton era currency.
Maybe he was a freak, but have they actually asked any blind people about this?
Here - take a lesson from Sweden:
http://www.banknotes.com/se62.htm
Eight of those will make a Starman.
The Fed determines how much money is in circulation and places orders for paper money with the Bureau of Engraving & Printing, which is part of the Treasury Dept. (as is the US Mint which produces the nation's coins). The Treasury Department determines what the money looks like, because the Treasury Department is responsible for the security of the dollar.
The US Mint and Bureau of E&P produce money, and the Fed is their only customer.
The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
It's likely because a standard keypad / face is used for ATMs, and that is used on both walk-up and drive-up machines.
Can someone please tell me why the keys on drive through instant tellers have braille on them?
You're blind. You get a taxi to the store, stopping at the ATM on the way. Do you want to give the cab driver your card and PIN?
There's a difference between making money accessible and mandating a store carry a robust big and tall selection. The money is created, distributed, and managed by the federal government. As such, it carries certain restrictions and regulations that must apply to the entire nation or to anyone outside of this nation who converts it between currencies. Wal-Mart is a corporation and, as such, chooses its product selection to best result in profitability. The government does not directly regulate product selection.
/ 1_1.php). The ADA is meant to set standards that make life a little easier for those folks. It also helps the likely 70 million other people that provide care for those people. Because of the ADA, my wife and I are able to wheel my son into stores, restaurants, libraries, and recreation areas so that we may enjoy time together in the same environments as everyone else. Certainly, there are many areas still off limits to us with a wheelchair, but we wish there weren't.
Does it set rules for how the building is constructed, how the employees are treated, how Wal-Mart's practices impact the citizenry? Sure, but that's far different than telling Wal-Mart whether or not to carry large pants. The two are not comparable.
Before I continue, let me go ahead an proclaim my bias. I have a nearly 5 year old son with cerebral palsy who requires the use of a wheelchair.
I find interesting the statement that we're in a situation where the "rights of the few outweigh the rights of the many". I rather think of it as "the rights of the few supplement the rights of the many". What rights have been denied people so that those with handicaps might better interact with our society and contribute to the economy? Buildings with ramps and elevators still have stairs. Money printed to be accessible will still be visually discernible. Electric outlets placed slightly higher on a wall do not make them any less useful for others. Lowered curbs can still be traversed by those able to walk.
The only right denied is, possibly, the right to deny. In the case of this possible alteration to currency, you are stating that it absolutely should be the case that the US government should shun some millions of its citizens to avoid easing their spending and decrease their independence. But why should it do that? What sense does that make?
According to numbers from 1995, 37.7 million people in the US have a disability that impedes them from engaging in normal activity (http://www.infouse.com/disabilitydata/disability
I should say, however, that when we run into that situation, we choose simply to not patronize such businesses. I wouldn't feel quite as laissez faire about running into the same restrictions in a government building, though. We understand that not all of society should bend to the benefit of our son, but we're very thankful when society enables us to participate. THAT is what the ADA is all about - participation. It does so in a heavy-handed way by legislating standards of access, but if it did not exist, those 37.7 million people would just be SOL.
Suppose we did go back to those old Republic roots. The nation's disabled citizens would either be institutionalized or kept at home. Considering the fun I've had with my son going camping, hiking accessible trails, flying to DisneyWorld, browsing for books, shopping for Halloween costumes, standing at the base of a towering Lincoln, et cetera, I'm glad that there is something in place to lessen our obstacles as we experience our neighborhood, our state, and our nation.
I would like for my son to one day be able to hold a job, be able to vote, be able to travel, and be able to have a home with his family. The ADA aids in all those things.
Somewhere along the line our nation went from a Republic to an odd politically correct hybrid of socialism where the rights of the few outweigh the rights of the many. 1% of the population can now dictate and control 99% of the population. That simply isn't right. [...] I'll tell you one thing; this kind of stuff sure as hell isn't what the founding fathers had in mind when they founded the nation, that's for sure.
Strange. Where in reading the Constitution and the early works of the founding fathers do you get the impression that majority will was always more sacred that minority liberty? Have you never heard the phrase "tyranny of the majority" as popularized by John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Toqueville? What do you think Madison was talking about in Federalist Paper no 10 when he said the following?
Why do you think that we have amendments specifically protecting freedom of speech, press, and religion from the popular will of the people if minority interests weren't intended to be preserved? Why has the minority party in the Senate always enjoyed the right of filibuster to preserve their interests? Why does the Senate itself even exist except to protect the interest of the smaller states against the larger? Why did we pass the 14th Amendment to protect the rights of all people at a time when people of one skin color and creed were by far the dominant majority?
Plurality and respect for the needs of the few over the wants of the many has been a central principle to the American democracy since its inception. If anything, it's the insistence on majoritarian dominance that is the greatest betrayal of our nations founding principles in our times as with it goes away all the rights and liberties that distinguish us from a totalitarian government.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
After a trip to Aus and NZ I had some left over bills. A little wrinkled, but fit for framing (I've got a frame with currency from about 25 nations). I hadn't paid enough attention to realize they were plastic based (hats off to the folks making them. Great quality)) and ironed a NZ $10. It contracted like a piece of shrink tubing.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
What I want to know is, will we finally be able to ditch the Illuminati pyramid and eye and get rid of the crazy Latin phrases?
Maybe something more American, like "Either you're with us or you're against us." ha.
Unless, of course, they're blind.