[nfb-talk] Cash

[Josh]

But european countries already have their money in different sizes. I 
personally would like my dollars to be different sizes so I could tell what 
they are. Don't you think it would be faster and more convenient if you knew 
that a five was smaller than a ten? or that a five was shaped like a 
triangle and that a ten was shaped like a circle? It's a lot better than 
going up to the counter to pay for your groceries and asking, what bills do 
i have in my hand? and then the person working there responds, you have a 1, 
a 5, two tens, and a 20. ok, I'll put away the 20 and give you two fives. 
no, I'll give you the ten. ok, I put the two fives away. Now the person 
gives you back change and has to tell you what bills he/she is giving you. 
Now let's take a look at Europe. They don't have this problem because their 
money is already different sizes. So europe is better as far as money is 
concerned.

Josh

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 9:05 PM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Cash


> In a perfect world, you'd be absolutely correct. And, in fact, at one 
> time,
> NFB's R&D Committee was, in fact, looking at the possibilities of
> constructing a hardware device that would intercept video signals and 
> would
> do all the interpretation. Unfortunately, this is the real world and not 
> the
> perfect one and the R&D Committee found that AI software wasn't at the 
> point
> that it could be introduced as firmware in a hardware gizmo. Hence, we 
> live
> with screen-readers which, like it or not, *require* web pages to conform 
> to
> some guidelines to present information intelligibly to us. You know this
> already but I present it to set the stage for what I shall say next.
>
> In a perfect world, you'd be absolutely correct; there would be a
> contradiction in philosophy between NFB's opposition to changes in the
> currency for the sake of the blind and NFB's Target lawsuit. But again, 
> this
> isn't a perfect world. So in addition to philosophical purity, some
> pragmatic considerations come into play. NFB has judged that in the world 
> of
> cyberspace wherein more and more marketplace transactions are taking 
> place,
> it is becoming increasingly important that the blind have access to
> commercial and financial websites since there is or may well soon be no 
> way
> for the blind to participate in the cybereconomy without it. Hence, the
> Target lawsuit.
>
> On the other hand, with respect to cash transactions, the blind handle 
> their
> currency and have always done so with very little difficulty. So we of NFB
> feel that the ACB lawsuit is asking the world to be modified in an area
> which we feel doesn't need modification and is positing a problem that, 
> for
> the most part, doesn't exist. Oh yes, theoretically, the blind could be
> cheated. But, anecdotally, the instances of being bilked in the *real* 
> world
> are few and far between and are, I suspect, no more prevalent than they 
> are
> for the sighted public.
>
> I would not object were currency changes made that would benefit everyone.
> But I believe that we, the blind, don't need currency changes to live our
> lives and engage in commerce in society. The ACB lawsuit sends the 
> opposite
> message -- that we live in constant fear of being short-changed and cannot
> make everyday financial transactions. This is obviously false.
>
> Yes, I have a money identifier. But I think I've used it three times this
> year and could have gotten along perfectly well without it. It certainly
> makes me bristle at the "poor, defenseless blind person" image propounded 
> by
> the lawsuit.
>
> Mike
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "John Heim" <jheim at math.wisc.edu>
> To: <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 10:22 AM
> Subject: [nfb-talk] Cash
>
>
>> Can someone please explain an apparent contradiction in NFB policies to
>> me?
>>
>> The NFB says that making the government change bills so that blind people
>> can tell them apart implies that "the blind are not capable of looking 
>> out
>> for our own best interests and that the whole world must be modified for
>> our
>> protection."
>>
>> Doesn't the suit against Target do the same thing? Doesn't it imply that
>> the
>> worl must be modified for us? If the NFB is to be consistent, shouldn't
>> they
>> be working on a screen reader that will work with the Target site rather
>> than trying to make Target change their site?
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> nfb-talk mailing list
>> nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-talk
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nfb-talk mailing list
> nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-talk