[gui-talk] National Federation of the Blind Comments on FederalCourt Ruling on U.S. Currency
Joel Deutsch
jdeutsch at dslextreme.com
Wed Nov 29 17:00:23 CST 2006
Reinhard,
I agree completely. I will try to be polite about it, because this is an NFB-sponsored list. Also, one line in the press release is inaccurate, or less than fully informative. Sure, I fold my currency so as to be able to identify it in my wallet-- once either someone like a retail clerk handing over the bills as change *tells* me what it is, which I have to request be done again and again and almost always instruct them not to just hand me the pile of bills and say, as if it were helpful, "okay, this is a five and three singles," or take a good while, as I'm trying to get out the door, to launch Open Book, put each bill I have at hand but whose denomination I don't happen to know its denomination into the scanner one at a time, wait half a minute or so for the scan and then a couple of seconds more for Open Book to announce what the bill is, if all goes well...
Anyway, I'm not complaining about any of that. I do as well as I can. But I'd feel a lot more confident and self-reliant if I could take any bill in hand and know its value. My goodness, I amaze grocery clerks who help me shop by estimating the weight of a wedge of wrapped cheese within a few tenths of an ounce, so it's not as if I've been lazy to learn alternatives for knowing what I used to be able simply to see for myself. But to rail against new currency, and to couple that objection with a rationale that "they" (the hated sightlings) will deny us other accommodations because they think we're crybabies? That's what they say every single time, as if justice and compassion were even more limited than they are, as it is. Strikes me as too worried by half.
the two on top are fives, then there are some singles, then
----- Original Message -----
From: Reinhard Stebner
To: 'NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List'
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 2:33 PM
Subject: Re: [gui-talk] National Federation of the Blind Comments on FederalCourt Ruling on U.S. Currency
I really do not understand the NFB's stand on this. I think having money
that I can tell at a glance what it is makes me more independent from
machines, fraud and enables me to be more independent. How do other blind
people think about this?
-----Original Message-----
From: gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of David Andrews
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 3:53 PM
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Subject: [gui-talk] National Federation of the Blind Comments on Federal
Court Ruling on U.S. Currency
National Federation of the Blind Comments
on Federal Court Ruling on U.S. Currency
Views Effort as Dangerously Misguided
Baltimore, Maryland (November 29, 2006): The
National Federation of the Blind, the largest
organization of blind persons in America and
known as the voice of the nation's blind,
criticized as dangerously misguided a federal
court ruling saying that the design of U.S.
currency discriminates against the blind.
Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National
Federation of the Blind, said: "The blind need
jobs and real opportunities to earn money, not
feel-good gimmicks that misinform the public
about our capabilities. Blind people transact
business with paper money every day. This ruling
puts a roadblock in the way of solving the real
problem, which is the seventy percent
unemployment rate among working-age blind
Americans that severely limits our access to
cash. The ruling will do nothing to alleviate
that situation; in fact, it seriously endangers
the ability of the blind to get jobs and
participate fully in society. It argues that the
blind cannot handle currency or documents in the
workplace and that virtually everything must be
modified for the use of the blind. An employer
who believes that every piece of printed material
in the workplace must be specially designed so
that the blind can read it will have a strong
incentive not to hire a blind person."
Maurer went on to enumerate the real needs for
access to information by the blind and made a
distinction between those needs and the issue of
identifying currency. "Access to information of
all kinds, such as that contained on Internet Web
sites and in the press, is certainly critical to
the ability of the blind to become productive
members of society. Blind students need
educational materials in Braille and other
alternative formats so that they can prepare for
employment and ultimately earn an income for
themselves and their families. Given the urgent
need for access to the kind of information that
is required for success in America's information
economy, the matter of identifying the
denominations of paper bills is of relatively little concern."
Blind people traditionally identify paper
currency by folding bills of different
denominations in different ways. "In reality,
blind people do not routinely find that we have
been short-changed," Maurer commented. Machines
are readily available to identify paper money for
blind people who run businesses or handle large
amounts of cash. "Essentially, the United States
Treasury has been ordered by the courts to come
up with a solution for a nonexistent problem," Maurer said.
The National Federation of the Blind believes
that with training and opportunity, blind people
can compete in the world with only minor
modifications. The American Council of the
Blind, which brought the lawsuit against the
United States Treasury, promotes the view that
the blind are unable to compete unless the world
is modified dramatically and specifically for
blind people, and that the blind must be made
objects of care and pity rather than equal participants in society.
John G. Paré Jr.
Director of Public Relations
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
1800 Johnson Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21230
Telephone: (410) 659-9314, ext. 2371
Cell phone: (410) 913-3912
Fax: (410) 685-5653
Email: jpare at nfb.org
_______________________________________________
gui-talk mailing list
gui-talk at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk
_______________________________________________
gui-talk mailing list
gui-talk at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk
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Reinhard,
I agree completely. I will try to be polite about it, because this is an NFB-sponsored list. Also, one line in the press release is inaccurate, or less than fully informative. Sure, I fold my currency so as to be able to identify it in my wallet-- once either someone like a retail clerk handing over the bills as change *tells* me what it is, which I have to request be done again and again and almost always instruct them not to just hand me the pile of bills and say, as if it were helpful, "okay, this is a five and three singles," or take a good while, as I'm trying to get out the door, to launch Open Book, put each bill I have at hand but whose denomination I don't happen to know its denomination into the scanner one at a time, wait half a minute or so for the scan and then a couple of seconds more for Open Book to announce what the bill is, if all goes well...
Anyway, I'm not complaining about any of that. I do as well as I can. But I'd feel a lot more confident and self-reliant if I could take any bill in hand and know its value. My goodness, I amaze grocery clerks who help me shop by estimating the weight of a wedge of wrapped cheese within a few tenths of an ounce, so it's not as if I've been lazy to learn alternatives for knowing what I used to be able simply to see for myself. But to rail against new currency, and to couple that objection with a rationale that "they" (the hated sightlings) will deny us other accommodations because they think we're crybabies? That's what they say every single time, as if justice and compassion were even more limited than they are, as it is. Strikes me as too worried by half.
the two on top are fives, then there are some singles, then
----- Original Message -----
From:
mailto:reinhard.stebner at gmail.com Reinhard Stebner
To:
mailto:gui-talk at nfbnet.org 'NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List'
Sent:
Wednesday, November 29, 2006 2:33 PM
Subject:
Re: [gui-talk] National Federation of the Blind Comments on FederalCourt Ruling on U.S. Currency
I really do not understand the NFB's stand on this. I think having money
that I can tell at a glance what it is makes me more independent from
machines, fraud and enables me to be more independent. How do other blind
people think about this?
-----Original Message-----
From: mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of David Andrews
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 3:53 PM
To: mailto:dtb-talk at nfbnet.org dtb-talk at nfbnet.org
; mailto:dandrews at visi.com dandrews at visi.com
; mailto:diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org
;
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; mailto:" nabs-l"@nfbnet.org " nabs-l"@nfbnet.org
; mailto:" nfbcs"@nfbnet.org " nfbcs"@nfbnet.org
;
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; mailto:" nfbmo"@nfbnet.org " nfbmo"@nfbnet.org
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Subject: [gui-talk] National Federation of the Blind Comments on Federal
Court Ruling on U.S. Currency
National Federation of the Blind Comments
on Federal Court Ruling on U.S. Currency
Views Effort as Dangerously Misguided
Baltimore, Maryland (November 29, 2006): The
National Federation of the Blind, the largest
organization of blind persons in America and
known as the voice of the nation's blind,
criticized as dangerously misguided a federal
court ruling saying that the design of U.S.
currency discriminates against the blind.
Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National
Federation of the Blind, said: "The blind need
jobs and real opportunities to earn money, not
feel-good gimmicks that misinform the public
about our capabilities. Blind people transact
business with paper money every day. This ruling
puts a roadblock in the way of solving the real
problem, which is the seventy percent
unemployment rate among working-age blind
Americans that severely limits our access to
cash. The ruling will do nothing to alleviate
that situation; in fact, it seriously endangers
the ability of the blind to get jobs and
participate fully in society. It argues that the
blind cannot handle currency or documents in the
workplace and that virtually everything must be
modified for the use of the blind. An employer
who believes that every piece of printed material
in the workplace must be specially designed so
that the blind can read it will have a strong
incentive not to hire a blind person."
Maurer went on to enumerate the real needs for
access to information by the blind and made a
distinction between those needs and the issue of
identifying currency. "Access to information of
all kinds, such as that contained on Internet Web
sites and in the press, is certainly critical to
the ability of the blind to become productive
members of society. Blind students need
educational materials in Braille and other
alternative formats so that they can prepare for
employment and ultimately earn an income for
themselves and their families. Given the urgent
need for access to the kind of information that
is required for success in America's information
economy, the matter of identifying the
denominations of paper bills is of relatively little concern."
Blind people traditionally identify paper
currency by folding bills of different
denominations in different ways. "In reality,
blind people do not routinely find that we have
been short-changed," Maurer commented. Machines
are readily available to identify paper money for
blind people who run businesses or handle large
amounts of cash. "Essentially, the United States
Treasury has been ordered by the courts to come
up with a solution for a nonexistent problem," Maurer said.
The National Federation of the Blind believes
that with training and opportunity, blind people
can compete in the world with only minor
modifications. The American Council of the
Blind, which brought the lawsuit against the
United States Treasury, promotes the view that
the blind are unable to compete unless the world
is modified dramatically and specifically for
blind people, and that the blind must be made
objects of care and pity rather than equal participants in society.
John G. Paré Jr.
Director of Public Relations
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
1800 Johnson Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21230
Telephone: (410) 659-9314, ext. 2371
Cell phone: (410) 913-3912
Fax: (410) 685-5653
Email: mailto:jpare at nfb.org jpare at nfb.org
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