[gui-talk] National Federation of the Blind Comments on Federal Court Ruling on U.S. Currency

Wed Nov 29 19:49:46 CST 2006

It's times like this that I'm reminded why I have nothing to do with the
federation. I'm certainly not saying everyone in the federation is this way,
but you have to wonder where some of this logic comes from.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Will Smith" <wilsmith at iglou.com>
To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 5:30 PM
Subject: Re: [gui-talk] National Federation of the Blind Comments on Federal
Court Ruling on U.S. Currency

I continue to marvel at the positions NFB top brass take on things like
distinct money markings or shapes.

I guess if you have enough power and position then money just doesnt
matter much.

Will
wilsmith at iglou.com
On Wed, 29 Nov 2006, Reinhard Stebner
wrote:

> 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-----
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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
>
>
>
>
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