[blindlaw] nfb currency resolution from 1994

Sun Dec 17 20:04:41 CST 2006

I can see your points, and the difference between making such changes as
part of a routine change, versus a forced one.  

However, now knowing that the United States is the only country that has
not made these modifications, then I now wonder why the Treasury did not
make the changes when it would have been much easier.  I fear that it
was nothing more than lobbying from the vending industry and any other
industry for which changing currency design might cost some money.  

I have thought about this issue a lot since the story broke.  I think it
is almost in a category by itself, since handling cash is something that
virtually everybody does on a regular basis.  I also have now concluded
that the sighted public thinks this is a fine idea, and does not go past
that.  

I appreciate the concern expressed in the NFB's current position, but
just think that it is simply not a connection that the sighted public
will make.  I am actually concerned that raising the premise, that
sighted folks will think that the blind need everything set up for them
and thus will not hire them, is now been put into the public's mind.
That thought was not there before, at least not in the way of a
connection between accessible money and the other issues of workplace
accommodations.  It is like "well, I had not thought about that before,
but now that you mention it".  

So in general, I think that in this currency matter us blind folks are
worried about issues or distinctions that are just too much of an inside
concept, and way too subtle for the general sighted population to think
of on their own.  We now have put that thought into their head.  

Yes, of course blind people have been dealing with inaccessible currency
for as long as there has been such things, but there is no way to get
around the fact that we are at the mercy of sighted folks, or some
electronic gizmo, to know what bills we have.  So I just do not
understand the premise that blind folks successfully deal with money all
the time.  What we do is manage as best we can with the situation, but
nobody can say that we are doing this independently.  

I do not see this as a sign of weakness or anything else but the reality
of the situation.  So what we instead do is manage our situation, and do
as much as we can independently.  But in this money situation, there is
no way to get around the basic point that the blind are not
independently dealing with paper currency.  

I do not feel the sighted public thinks less of us because of this
currency lawsuit, nor would they extrapolate from the paper currency
issue to thinking that the blind are all of a sudden a lot more helpless
and a pain to deal with.  

So if I understand this correctly, the current NFB position is more to
the effect that it would be fine and nice to have accessible currency,
so long as nobody has to spend much extra money to accomplish that.  And
the important thing is to consider this a nice thing to do, but in no
way a legal right.  I think there is something to this premise in that
people obviously feel better about doing something voluntarily, as
opposed to being forced to.  All of us are capable of that human
reaction.  

My crystal ball tells me that the ACB's premise will ultimately prevail,
even at the Supreme Court level, because it strikes sighted folks as
pretty fundamental, and the fact that the United States is out all by
itself on this one will be seen as eliminating any notion of an
unreasonable burden.  I also see this as being a case that will be
limited to its own facts, and will not have the consequences dreaded by
some.  Of course all of this is my opinion, and thus worthless!

Perhaps the best practical solution is for all of us to ask Congress to
simply tell the Treasury to do this, as a matter of just being a fair
thing that the rest of the world has already done.  The ACB lawsuit
would become moot, and we can avoid the concerns about how the legal
issues might have unintended adverse consequences.  

Sincerely,
Tim Ford

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Chris Danielsen
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2006 12:40 AM
To: NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] nfb currency resolution from 1994

Tim,

Without exhaustive parsing of this resolution and the House resolution
and 
debate you posted earlier, I would say off the cuff that both of these 
resolutions were passed when the treasury was actively engaged in the 
process of redesigning currency.  Both the NFB and the House supported 
considering tactile additions to the currency while that redesign
process 
was going forward.  However, the NFB did make it clear that we didn't
want 
currency changed solely for the sake of the blind, but only if doing so
also 
served other purposes; and as the below resolution indicates, we never 
wanted the public to get the idea that the blind couldn't handle
currency as 
it is.  Furthermore, though the segment of the Congressional record you 
posted indicates support for feasible tactile changes to the currency,
its 
sponsor didn't support "radical" redesign of the currency.

For me, at least, the crux of the problem with the recent court decision
is 
that it says currency "discriminates" against the blind.  Discrimination
is 
a strong word; it implies that the group being discriminated against is 
barred from having or doing something.  Furthermore, the court said the 
blind are denied "meaningful access" to the currency by the way it's 
designed.  The court was trying to apply a balancing test whereby access
has 
to be considered, but also whether an accommodation is reasonable.  I 
understand the court's reasoning, but to me, "meaningful" access goes to
the 
question of whether blind people can use paper money.  We can, and have
done 
so for years.  I do think Treasury probably hasn't done its due
diligence on 
this issue (especially given its rather lame arguments before the
court), 
and there mnay be all sorts of good reasons, including helping the
blind, to 
change the money.  But to say that the blind can't use paper money
unless 
it's changed, and that this alone means it must be changed, seems to me
to 
be going overboard.

Chris

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ford, Tim (DHS-OLS)" <TFord at dhs.ca.gov>
To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 6:37 PM
Subject: [blindlaw] nfb currency resolution from 1994

>From another list.  With this, and the 1997 Congressional resolution, 
>it
seems that the current position on accessible currency has gone through
a fair amount of change.

 -----Original Message-----
From: disability-civil-rights at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:disability-civil-rights at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of joe harcz
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 1:21 PM
To: blind democracy List
Cc: acb-chat at acb.org; Michigan Comm for the Blind Vision 20/20 List
Subject: [disability-civil-rights] nfb currency resolution from 1994

NFB Currency Resolution 1994 (Res. 94-07)

Resolution 94-07

WHEREAS, the United States Department of the Treasury is examining
alternatives to the present currency for the purposes of making
counterfeiting more difficult

and for making currency more compatible with modern technology; and

WHEREAS, revisions to the present currency may include variations in
color, raised markings, bar coding, or other electronically readable
formats; and

WHEREAS, it is a widespread misconception that blind people cannot
handle their own money because they cannot see it; and

WHEREAS, it is beyond dispute that blind people can, in fact, handle
their own money; however, bills which can be identified by other than
conventional

print could be more convenient for everyone, may be a necessity to
safeguard against counterfeiting, and may be desirable to take the best
advantage of

evolving technology: Now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind in Convention
assembled this seventh day of July, 1994, in the City of Detroit,
Michigan, that this

organization express the interest of blind people in the discussion of a
modernized form of currency so that any changes which may eventually be
made will

include methods of identifying money by other than strictly visual
means; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Federation, notwithstanding its
expressed interest in the ultimate decisions on currency changes, do all
in its power correctly

to inform the public that blind people can and do successfully handle
money in its present form.

http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/convent/resol94.htm

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