Slashdot Mirror
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
I respond to your sigs
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.
[% slash_sig_val.text %]
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.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
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.
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.
biopowered.co.uk - catalytically cracking triglycerides for home automotive use since 2008. Just say no to big oil!
- 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.
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!
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
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?