A federal appeals court today upheld a lower ruling that the U.S. currency system discriminates against blind people because bills of different denominations are the same size, shape and color and cannot be easily distinguished by the visually impaired.
In a 2-1 ruling issued this morning, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said the existing system violates the federal Rehabilitation Act and ruled that the Treasury Department must find a way to accommodate the needs of the visually impaired.
Some leading advocacy groups, including the National Federation for the Blind, have strongly opposed the 2002 lawsuit that led to today's ruling, saying that most blind people have found ways to cope with the challenges that paper currency presents and arguing that there are other, more pressing needs to be addressed. That position echoes some of what Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. told the appeals court in testimony last year: that the blind can function adequately by using credit cards or electronic scanners that identify different bills, and by relying on help from others.
But the majority opinion by Judge Judith W. Rogers that was released today sharply disputed that view. "The Secretary's argument is analogous to contending that merely because the mobility impaired may be able either to rely on the assistance of strangers or to crawl on all fours in navigating architectural obstacles . . . they are not denied meaningful access to public buildings," Rogers wrote.
And so on, and so on.
Is this the application of common sense to something as simple as using slightly differently-sized bills? Or is this the epitome of inane whining?[/quote]
It's the epitome of inane whining. Although having paper money of the same size is flawed (an episode of 'Marshal Law' showed that low-denomination bills can be bleached and then printed with high-denominations in counterfeiting), it'll cost money to change the US Treasury's printers to make them different sizes, money that is more urgently needed elsewhere, e.g., Social Security, Medicare, unemployment benefits and medical services for disabled veterans, environmental protection...
Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.
They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
It's about time we start making 5, 10, and 20 dollar coins.
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season."
Soontir C'boath wrote:It's about time we start making 5, 10, and 20 dollar coins.
And then years down the line somebody would start whining about "separate but unequal money".
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People pray so that God won't crush them like bugs.
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Oil an emergency?! It's about time, Brigadier, that the leaders of this planet of yours realised that to remain dependent upon a mineral slime simply doesn't make sense.
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Sidewinder wrote:... t'll cost money to change the US Treasury's printers to make them different sizes, money that is more urgently needed elsewhere...
Quoting from the original source to put hard numbers on it:
The government has said such changes would be costly--from a minimum of $4.5 million to dramatically increase the size of numerals on bills so they could be read by those with poor vision, to more than $200 million to create different-sized bills -- and could interfere with anti-counterfeiting efforts. But the appeals panel noted that the cost estimates included applying the changes to all bills, while advocates say that the $1 bill, which accounts for nearly half of all currency printed each year, would not have to change.
The simplest way to solve this problem is for higher denomination bills to have a number of small perforations punched in them, while the $1 bill would have none.
When ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back to bullets.
—Abraham Lincoln
People pray so that God won't crush them like bugs.
—Dr. Gregory House
Oil an emergency?! It's about time, Brigadier, that the leaders of this planet of yours realised that to remain dependent upon a mineral slime simply doesn't make sense.
—The Doctor "Terror Of The Zygons" (1975)
Sidewinder wrote:It's the epitome of inane whining. Although having paper money of the same size is flawed (an episode of 'Marshal Law' showed that low-denomination bills can be bleached and then printed with high-denominations in counterfeiting), it'll cost money to change the US Treasury's printers to make them different sizes, money that is more urgently needed elsewhere, e.g., Social Security, Medicare, unemployment benefits and medical services for disabled veterans, environmental protection...
They don't even need to completely change the size of the currency, which is an absurd argument against making accommodations for the blind. All they have to do is make minor changes to the plates so that the currency has raised bumps that they can read like regular brail instead, and problem solved. Claims of it costing too much are absurd when both Canada and the EU have instated these changes with minimal problems.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
I'm going with whining. Hell even the NFB thinks it's needless. However the easiest way to fix this is to just put brail numbers on the bills and raise the new reflective numbers some. At least in the beginning of life, that feature would be useful. After some time in a wallet, maybe not so much.
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses.
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Would braille-inspired raised bumps be effective? Paper money gets pretty worn over a relatively short period of time. Can we expect the bumps to reliably persist?
If not, what happens if a $100 bill gets three bumps, and one of them wears away, so the blind person feeling the bumps suddenly senses two bumps and decides it's a $50 instead?
Then again, bumps in different positions with a sufficiently complex arrangement (2 in a corner and 1 middle for $100, 1 in each corner and 3 middle for $50, etc) such that the loss of one or two bumps still keeps the bill distinct from any other possible bill would work...?
Why don't Americans look at other countries to see what works, instead of asking questions into a void as if no one has ever tried these things before?
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Red wrote:Would braille-inspired raised bumps be effective? Paper money gets pretty worn over a relatively short period of time. Can we expect the bumps to reliably persist?
If not, what happens if a $100 bill gets three bumps, and one of them wears away, so the blind person feeling the bumps suddenly senses two bumps and decides it's a $50 instead?
Then again, bumps in different positions with a sufficiently complex arrangement (2 in a corner and 1 middle for $100, 1 in each corner and 3 middle for $50, etc) such that the loss of one or two bumps still keeps the bill distinct from any other possible bill would work...?
Make changes to the material the bill's made out of then, or make the braille appear on the magnetic strip that's inserted inside the bill so the chances of it disappearing are minimal unless it's removed. Since currency is getting redesigned every 7-10 years anyway, something so minor as adding functional braille to the bills should be trivial.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
Japan's bills are apparently blind-person friendly and they just have raised bumps on them.
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Red wrote:And so on, and so on.
Is this the application of common sense to something as simple as using slightly differently-sized bills? Or is this the epitome of inane whining?
Common sense, there's no reason that all bills should be the same size and colour and contrary to bizarre claims by the treasury department far from hampering 'anti-counterfeiting efforts' varying bills makes counterfeiting harder. Which is just one of the reasons why most developed countries other than the USA do just that.
FSTargetDrone wrote:And as far as making coins of larger denominations, wouldn't that start to get problematic carrying around?
Dunno, why not ask the growing number of countries who have already successfully implemented it?
But wait, that kind of answers the question in and of itself.
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Darth Wong wrote:Why don't Americans look at other countries to see what works, instead of asking questions into a void as if no one has ever tried these things before?
Because the things that work in other countries would never work in America. That's what I hear, anyway.
Australian notes are different sizes, wildly different technicolour colours (orange, green, blue, pink), have distinct see-through bits,and have the numerals printed large although that's probably secondary. All American money looks the same, but buggered if they'll change it!
Holy shit, I think Australian money is even colour-blind compatible. I'll have to ask Zak.
If the color-blind people aren't illiterate, then I'm pretty sure all money is color-blind compatible.
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Hawkwings wrote:If the color-blind people aren't illiterate, then I'm pretty sure all money is color-blind compatible.
If it weren't for the fact that the color on most money is green, and the colors tend to blend in very well, with green being one of the colors that a color-blind person can have trouble distinguishing, that might be a good point. Except not so much.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
Actually I guess I shouldn't be too harsh; the idea of money that is instantly visually distinct is probably new to you. When money has loud colours, you don't have to read it or look for details. I can tell how much money is in my wallet by looking at the ends of the notes exposed in the fold. This even works on the colourblind, unless they would see the orange and green as the same (but green is $100, which nobody uses, so...).
Well I'm quite severely colour blind and I can distinguish British notes at a glance, the new £20 in particular a nicely distinctive. As it happens I still use cash quite a lot as I get paid in cash for a fair few gigs (but don't worry it's all invoiced, taxed & so forth as well).
Wouldn't adding bumps or ridges or something like that to money make it harder to counterfeit? It'd be even more stuff to add, plus they wouldn't be able to pass it off as well in darkened places. That'd make it a win-win for everybody.
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I think braille is a pretty stupid idea for notes, to be honest. Having it there would make blind people expect it, and yet it'll be the first part of the note to wear out. I'm not sure how useful different sizes would be to a stone blind person, but simply a different texture over one area (like AU's windows) is probably better and more reliable.
