[gui-talk] A blind vendor's input on accessible money

[Scott Spaulding]

Personally, I don't care if the money is tactilely identifiable or not, but
I "do" think that it would be nice not having to visually verify a bill when
handed one, admittedly I do have some vision to do this and I know many who
don't have vision to verify it and they do fine.

-----Original Message-----
From: gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Joel Deutsch
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 7:02 PM
To: NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [gui-talk] A blind vendor's input on accessible money

First of all, *(I* would prefer to have bills I can identify by touch, and I
don't care whether this blind guy wants them or not.  Understood?
2.  what kind of remark is the car thing?  There ain't gonna be some car for
blind drivers.  Behind this wisecrack, he's expressing a wish to have his
sight back, if you ask me.  One just makes wisecracks like that when there's
nothing more to say about the real problem.  Old men whose last erection is
decades behind them like to make lusty-sounding remarks about how they'd
like to get their hands on Julia roberts or whoever.  Now, if there were the
chance of reviving their libido-- and this doesn't have anything to do with
Viagra, please understand-- then they would stop with the remarks about
Julia and look into that remedy for the lost hormonal life of earlier years.
I'm assuming that those reading this post understand that a drug like Viagra
doesn't replace dead lust in a man, it just reenables the mechanism if the
mind and body are inspired, otherwise.  Viagra is referred to in mass
culture so crazily that one wonders if most of the country thinks it's an
aphrodisiac, which it isn't.

But anyway, it just doesn't make much sense to me.  I'm happy that the blind
vendor is okay with things as they are, he should live and be well, as my
dear departed father would have said.  But regardless.  It's just bar talk,
as I see it.  He may be fine with his life with money, but I'm not fine with
mine.  And I don't want no high tech blind-adapted car.  I just want a
regular car and a driver, available 24/7.  The Steve Wynn life.  that would
be fine with me.


Just my take on this contribution, okay?  Okay.

----- Original Message -----
From: Doug Lee
To: NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 3:38 PM
Subject: [gui-talk] A blind vendor's input on accessible money


Ok, I finally got the chance to do what I always thought would make the most
sense with this money issue:  Ask a blind vendor for an opinion, without
first presenting any bias.  Here is my best recollection of the
conversation.

Me:  I have a question for you, if you have the time.

Vendor:  I'll see if I got an answer.

Me:  What is your opinion on this issue of changing the currency?

Vendor:  (pause) You really wanna know what I think?

me:  Yes.

Vendor:  (pause, perhaps for effect) I think I'd rather have a car I can
drive!

Me: (healthy burst of laughter)

We continued to discuss the issue a bit after that, amid the passing of
other customers through his line.  I genuinely expected him to go on to at
least defend the notion that changing the money would be helpful to him, but
to my surprise, he did the opposite, stating that he had gotten along just
fine with things as they are now.  I promise you, until after this
revelation, I was careful not to bias his answers with any indication of my
own opinion.  He has known me for several months, but just from casual
contact as I have passed through his cafeteria while on this Texas contract
from time to time.  I do not believe he was aware of my views at all and
either did not know or did not remember my affiliation with the NFB.  I
don't know if he is affiliated with any group to this day.

After he clearly stated his thoughts, I put forth my view that it would have
been nice to consider this currency change as part of something else, but
not as a change unto itself.  He heartily agreed.

I then questioned his method of handling money identification.  In summary,
he has a talking money identifier which seems accurate but, in my opinion,
rather slow; and he uses it, he says, at random to avoid singling anyone
out, except that of course he also uses it when he has reason to doubt what
he is given.  To again quote him as near as I can remember, he said at one
point, "If you don't sound like you know what you're givin me, I'm gonna
check it out."  (That is not an exact quote, but I think it is pretty
close.)

My point in presenting this dialog is this:  It is surely a blind vendor,
who processes money from strangers every day and must necessarily have means
of avoiding misidentification, dishonest customers, etc., who should have a
say in this matter.  One vendor is hardly a statistically valid sample to be
sure, but it is the only "sample" I could get myself.

-- 
Doug Lee                 dgl at dlee.org        
SSB + BART Group         doug.lee at ssbbartgroup.com
http://www.ssbbartgroup.com
Freedom is not the ability to have what we want.  Freedom is merely the
ability to seek it.  To be free defines what we can do, not what we can get.
(03/28/05)
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