[nfbwatlk] An Inconvenient Question

[Mike Freeman]

Supposedly some of Canada's paper money has tactile markings but I 
understand that these get rubbed down pretty quickly so are virtually 
useless. England and Germany have currency of different sizes if I 
remember rightly and the Royal National Institute sells a little gizmo 
that you put a bill up against to judge which denomination it is --  
pretty lame if you ask me but if they like it, more power to them.

Personally, I figure we could skip the whole controversy if we'd ban 
paper money and go back to cartwheels and goldpieces! My God, don't tell 
me I'm beginning to sound like Kenneth Crane!

Mike Freeman
... "It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly." -- Anatole 
France


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Alco Canfield
  To: 'NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List'
  Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 12:00 PM
  Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] An Inconvenient Question


  I gguess it would depend on whether countries with accessible currency 
had
  other laws ensuring or trying to ensure nondiscriminatory treatment of 
blind
  people in the areas of employment, housing, transportation, etc.  If 
those
  laws aren't in place, yes, I believe you are probably right re retail
  employment.

  I would love to see a list of countries which have accessible 
currency.  I
  didn't think Canada's was.  At least it wasn't when I lived there, but
  perhaps things have changed re this.

  Alco

  -----Original Message-----
  From: nfbwatlk-bounces+amcanfield=comcast.net at nfbnet.org
  [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces+amcanfield=comcast.net at nfbnet.org] On Behalf 
Of
  Freeman,Mike - TOS-DITT2
  Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 9:00 AM
  To: nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org
  Subject: [nfbwatlk] An Inconvenient Question

  Fellow listers:

  Recently there has been a fair amount of discussion, both on 
NFB-sponsored
  lists and lists sponsored by other organizations, of the recent U.S.
  District Court decision affirming the contention by the American 
Council of
  the Blind that the U.S. Department of the Treasury is discriminating 
against
  the blind by failing to provide for currency the value of which can be
  distinguished by touch. Amid the cacaphony of debate concerning the 
merit of
  the court decision and the lawsuit, there have been messages 
maintaining
  that, putting aside legal debates, adoption of accessible currency in 
this
  country would result in opening up of many retail and cashier jobs for 
the
  blind. If this assertion is true, it seems to me that there ought to 
be an
  appreciably larger proportion of blind persons holding retail and 
cashier
  jobs in countries with tactily-differentiable currency than is the 
case here
  in the U.S. I wonder if anyone (say an up-and-coming sociology student
  looking for ways to waste government R&D money) has looked into this
  question? The results might be interesting.

  In fact, I suspect that the results might fly in the face of common
  sense: I'd be willing to bet some of that inaccessible U.S. currency 
that
  the opposite holds true. I'll bet that the unemployment rate (not 
counting
  jobs in government or in professions set aside for the blind such as 
selling
  lottery tickets in Spain or, to some extent, massage therapy in Japan) 
is no
  lower for the blind and visually impaired in countries with accessible
  currency than it is here in the U.S. Certainly the unemployment rate 
for the
  blind and visually impaired in Canada, a country with 
purportedly-accessible
  currency, is as high as it is here in the U.S.

  Just something to think about.

  Mike Freeman
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