[blindlaw] American currency and other accessibility issues.

[David Andrews]

Rod, it is a matter of degree.  The changing of a whole nation's 
currency is a much bigger undertaking than changing ATM's.  Further, 
changes in ATM's were specifically mandated in the ADA.  The banks 
and ATM makers drug their feet on doing it.

Dave

At 11:27 PM 12/3/2006, you wrote:
>Joe, Dave's argument is that by changing the currency, the businesses will
>need to also alter their vending machines, etc etc etc, and that they will
>be mad at us. When we sue them to change their ATMS, aren't we suing private
>businesses to alter their machines? I don't really see the difference
>between us suing a company to change their ATMS, and the court telling the
>government to change the currency, which would ultimately compel the
>companies to change their vending machines. I also wonder which is a more
>expensive thing to do? Changing ATMS or vending machines.
>
>Are we just afraid that the government won't do things for us in the future?
>Or do we simply prefer to litigate when the government is not in the case.
>
>My understanding of the issue is that if I go out tomorrow and sue a store
>to change its vending machine because it is not accessible, it would be the
>same exact thing, if I had gone out and sued Bank of America to make its
>ATMS more accessible. The only difference with the currency issue is that
>the order is directed to the government, and the government will need to get
>these businesses to do what otherwise a law suit would have achieved when
>they ultimately comply with the order, which they must do.
>
>Rod
>From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>Behalf of Joe Orozco
>Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 11:52 PM
>To: NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List
>Subject: Re: [blindlaw] American currency and other accessibility issues.
>
>     Come now Rod.  I appreciate the ironic comparison, but asking businesses
>
>to make their ATM machines accessible affects only one sector of the
>industry.  It does not welcome the spillover effect of changing our
>currency.  If I had to prioritize between pushing for ATM accessibility and
>currency modifications, I would totally buy into the ATM advocacy regardless
>
>of which organization made the push, because while there may be isolated
>incidents of people getting short changed in cash, people would have more
>personal information and more assets to lose by asking strangers to assist
>with withdrawing from the bank.  Has the ACB made such an advocacy?  I
>honestly don't know, but if it has not, I see it as an example of the more
>ground breaking position the organization could have taken.  If it has, I
>think our own side needs to join in the noise to get something changed.
>Anyway, just my thoughts.
>
>           Joe Orozco
>
>"The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle."--Military
>Basic Training
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Rod Alcidonis" <roddj12 at hotmail.com>
>To: "'NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List'" <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
>Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 11:27 PM
>Subject: Re: [blindlaw] American currency and other accessibility issues.
>
>
> > Joe, this would be against our policy, you have to adapt around the
> > inaccessible machines and be miserable, they shouldn't be made accessible
> > to
> > you buddy. You are asking the world for too much!
> >
> > Rod
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> > Behalf Of Joshua E. Saunders
> > Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 8:24 PM
> > To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
> > Subject: [blindlaw] American currency and other accessibility issues.
> >
> > I have been listening to the debate on both sides of the issue, with
> > regards
> > to currency accessibility.  The Federation has a point in that there could
> > be a backlash if the public comes to resent blind people for demanding too
> > many accommodations.  At the same time I don't think we should simply make
> > the assumption that that is the attitude most cited people will have.
> > Cited
> > people who I've talked to have seen it as a positive thing.  It's possible
> > that because I am blind they feel like they have to respond in this way.
> > I
> > haven't gotten any sense of deceptiveness in people's responses however.
> >
> >
> >
> > Since we have been talking about accessibility issues I wanted to raise
> > one
> > which I have been thinking about.  Touch screens are ubiquitous parts of
> > the
> > ATM machines at supermarkets.  There also present as a part of many other
> > common machines such as the automatic ticket machines for Amtra I found
> > myself in a very uncomfortable situation when I had to hand my credit card
> > to a total stranger in order to have my previously purchased ticket
> > extracted from the machine.  Now I simply do not by my tickets in advance,
> > so that I don't have to use the machine.  k.  I wanted people 's thoughts
> > on
> > whether we should work to have this technology made more accessible.  To
> > me
> > it seems just as important as making web sites accessible, because of how
> > common the technology has become.,
> >
> >
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>
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