[nfb-talk] Cash

[John Heim]

Well, first of all, I doubt that you are typical. Everyone uses cash. Not 
everyone uses the web. There are work arounds for the cash problem but there 
are workarounds for the web too.

* Use a different site
* Get sighted assistance
* Order by phone

The point is that any argument you make aginst accessible money can be made 
against accessible web. So instead of being for one and against the other, 
why not just be in favor of both?!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Jacobson" <steve.jacobson at visi.com>
To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 9:27 AM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] Cash


> John,
>
> I either did not write clearly or you are perhaps intentionally reading 
> into my message what you need to make your point.  My point was and still 
> is that the general
> web access efforts have a greater impact on my life than would 
> identifiable money.  I used as an example my ability to shop, so I was not 
> denying that the web is
> currently accessible, but if you are honest with yourself you know that we 
> can easily loose much of the accessibility we have gained, and a good deal 
> of our current
> accessibility has required work on the part of a number of people and 
> organizations.  I also never claimed that there are not times when 
> identifiable money would be
> convenient.
> However, I can usually plan around the inconvenience and have done so my 
> entire life.  Your beer vendor example is a good one, but I would do my 
> best not to
> give a beer vendor a large bill at a baseball game.  In that case, though, 
> you are right, identifiable bills would be useful.  However, in most 
> transactions in which I
> participate, having the clerk name the bill that is being handed to me 
> just isn't a big deal.  I don't think that your number of transactions 
> argument is that relevant.  It is
> the number of unavoidable bad transactions that are relevant and I 
> maintain they just don't happen that often.
>
> As I have stated before, though, it is not as much this particular issue 
> but the general pattern that makes me uneasy.  Let's assume that we just 
> disagree hear and
> that money handling has been extremely difficult for you and a major 
> source of stress.  How do we decide which issues are civil rights.  Some 
> newly blinded people
> find most upsetting the fact that they will never see a sunset.  I have 
> heard that stated, so this isn't manufactured.  Most of us would agree 
> that society does not owe
> them someone to describe a sunset on call.  But it soon gets more 
> complicated as we move on up the ladder of issues.  Does society owe us 
> accommodations,
> excluding money for the moment, for things that cause us trouble that we 
> can learn ourselves given training?  Sighted people don't have to use 
> canes or dogs, so
> should society assign someone to us so we don't have to go to that extra 
> effort to learn to use a cane or dog?  My guess is that you would agree 
> with me that we are
> better off learning to use a cane or dog, but why?  The point is, though, 
> where is that point where we don't use another technique and expect that 
> we are
> accommodated in some way?
>
> This is where our employability is affected.  If we create a whole set of 
> requirements for us to exist in a workplace, it is not going to help us 
> get jobs.  By itself, money
> is not going to do that, but building a whole set of requirements that 
> assumes we have no alternative methods of handling things is not going to 
> help us.
>
> Back to money for a moment, I recognize that this is not a clearcut issue 
> given that many other countries have made their currency identifiable.  I 
> also recognize that
> the government is not being completely honest in how they calculate costs. 
> Still, I see issue after issue where nothing is being viewed in any sort 
> of total context as
> to what we need to move ahead.  That's my real gripe.  We're probably not 
> perfect about this either, but the NFB does tend to think about the total 
> picture as we
> look at an issue.  It is what has drawn many of us to the NFB.  The 
> attitude of "What's it going to hurt," is goin to hurt us in the long run.
>
> On Thu, 14 Dec 2006 07:27:30 -0600, John Heim wrote:
>
>
>>> 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
>
>>That is simply not true. Or at least it's no more true than it is for the
>>web.  I browse the web every single day. I make my living using the web.
>
>>In fact, I need help handling money far, far more often than I need help
>>with web pages. EVERY single transaction requires me to get help with my
>>cash. Every single one.  I almost never need help with the web. In fact, I
>>am more often helping people than the other way around .
>
>>Also, there is an apparent conflict of interest here. The NFB is now 
>>selling
>>the very gismos that they claim blind people can use to sort their money.
>>That may not be the reason they took their stance but it looks bad.
>
>>Another thing that makes no sense is the aargument that changing the money
>>will make it harder for blind people to get jobs because it gives people 
>>the
>>idea that blind people can't handle money. But you can't give people an 
>>idea
>>they already have. It's ridiculous to say that it will be harder for blind
>>people to get jobs if the money is changed. Try getting a job handling 
>>money
>>today. What do you think your odds are. About zero. Changing the money 
>>might
>>not improve the odds much but it sure ain't gonna hurt.
>
>>Changing the money will make it far, far easier for blind people to do 
>>their
>>jobs. Any job involving travel will be made far easier. I was in Brooklyn
>>once. I was running late so I bought a hotdog from a street vendor, jumped
>>in a cab to the airport, tipped a skycap  who helped me get to the gate. 
>>All
>>those transactions were conducted in cash. I want to be able to reach into
>>my pocket and pull out the $5 that the cabbie gave me and hand it to the
>>skycap. You want to talk about making a bad impression, try asking a 
>>skycap
>>to sort your money so you can figure out his tip. That looks pathetic.
>
>>When I'm handed a wad of bills after  buying a beer at a football game, I
>>want to be able to count it MYSELF and say, "Um, pardon me, I think you 
>>made
>>a mistake here." How in the world can the NFB stand in the way of that?
>
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>
>
>
>
>
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