[Nfbaz-talk] NFB press release supporting Treasury Department

[krezguy]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
John G. Paré Jr.
Director of Public Relations
National Federation of the Blind
(410) 659-9314, extension 2371
(410) 913-3912 (Cell)
jpare at nfb.org
National Federation of the Blind Applauds Treasury Appeal

United States Currency Does Not Discriminate Against Blind People

Baltimore, Maryland (December 12, 2006): The National Federation of the
Blind (NFB), the nation’s oldest and largest organization of blind persons,
today announced its full support of the decision of the United States
Department of the Treasury to appeal a court order mandating a redesign of
U.S. paper money.  The Federation plans to support the Treasury in the
appeal process.

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said:
“The ruling of Judge James Robertson saying that U.S. currency discriminates
against the blind was dangerous and wrong.  The blind are not barred from
using U.S. paper money because of the way it is designed.  This ruling
misinterpreted the meaning of discrimination.  It also implied 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.  If it is allowed to stand
unchallenged, this ruling will do real harm to the blind by making our goal
of full and equal participation in society virtually impossible to achieve.
That is why the National Federation of the Blind will do everything in its
power to support the Treasury in seeing that this ruling is overturned.”

The appeal from the Treasury came in response to a November 28 ruling by
Federal District Court Judge James Robertson saying that the design of U.S.
paper money discriminates against the blind because all bills are the same
size and shape.  Judge Robertson ordered the Treasury to come up with design
changes that would make currency identifiable to the blind by touch.  The
day after the ruling, the National Federation of the Blind issued a strong
statement that paper money is not a form of discrimination against the
blind.  In that statement, Dr. Maurer said: “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 

National Federation of the Blind
Applauds Treasury Appeal
December 12, 2006
Page two

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.”

Blind people traditionally identify paper currency by folding bills of
different denominations in different ways.  Some blind people use devices
that can speak the denomination of a bill aloud, and the Treasury is doing
research to make such technology more readily available.  In a 2002
resolution passed by the national convention of the NFB in response to the
filing of the lawsuit against the Treasury, the organization suggested that
providing money identification technology to the blind was probably a better
solution to the problem than a wholesale redesign of the currency.  But most
blind people use paper money without the need to carry a money identifier.
“In reality, blind people do not routinely find that we have been
short-changed,” Maurer said.  “If a question arises as to a particular
transaction, we are perfectly capable of resolving the matter ourselves.”

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About the National Federation of the Blind

With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind is the
largest and most influential membership organization of blind people in the
United States.   The NFB improves blind people’s lives through advocacy,
education, research, technology, and programs encouraging independence and
self-confidence.  It is the leading force in the blindness field today and
the voice of the nation's blind.  In January 2004 the NFB opened the
National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and
training center in the United States for the blind led by the blind.