[Blindtlk] Interesting Note on Signatures

[Mary Mc Gee]

Dear Diane and All;
	Your experience makes me all the more glad that I posted this
matter.  I can perfectly understand your counselor's logic because your job
is Ok with the signature you have.  It should be so.  
	The reason I posted my questions is that I believe any signature
should be acceptable, whether the person is blind or not.  As I said, mine
isn't legible and I have many colleagues who have that trait in common with
me.  I sometimes have trouble reading some of the signatures on Court Orders
and those are judges signatures, so I never thought neatness or ligibility
were a big deal.  
	I thank all of you who responded to my questions, however, we still
have the dilemma because the IRS refused to believe my husband's signature
was authentic.  It was right under my illegible one and yet mine was deemed
authentic!  Go figure!  
	Those of you who said he's lazy and that blindness is no excuse are
absolutely right!  But, why would an agency accept one blind person's
illegible signature and not another?  Could it be that the signatures of tax
returns are somehow "read" electronically and that there are some tech
criteria that determine authenticity?  It is indeed a strange situation.  
	I have concluded to just wait and see if it happens this year.  If
it doesn't, I'll just treat it as one of those unexplainable freaky things
that happen.  If it happens, I'll do to our IRS office and see what I can
find out.
Sincerely,
Mary



-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Graves, Diane
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 7:44 AM
To: 'Blind Talk Mailing List'
Subject: [Blindtlk] Interesting Note on Signatures


Good Morning All,

In light of our recent discussion on the importance of signing documents
legibly,  I just thought you might be interested in my recent interactions
with Voc. Rehab regarding the issue. As I mentioned, I have a case currently
open with them because I needed to get some work related assistive
technology upgraded. So,, following our discussion I decided to ask my
counselor if, given the fact that I had a case open, I could get someone to
work with me on addressing my deficit.

Now let me preface by saying that the last thing I intend or want to do is
give this particular counselor a bad name. With regard to the work-related
items, this is absolutely the best and most efficient service that I have
ever received from VR in any of the 3 states in which I have had services.
He was great. I didn't get all of the technology that I would have liked,
but I got the things I needed, and I got them quickly. I couldn't believe
it. It was amazing.

However, when I asked about the signature I was told that, anything that VR
provided had to be necessary in order to get or retain a job. He said a
legible signature didn't fall under this category, and so VR couldn't
provide this training. He said that, in order to receive such training I
would have to have a statement from my employer indicating that my job was
in jeopardy if I didn't learn to sign my name correctly.

Well, of course, this is not the case. Not only has my signature never been
questioned, but I rarely have to sign my name on the job, save for the
occasional performance reviews, benefits forms, acknowledgement of policy
changes and so forth. So my Job certainly isn't in jeopardy
[cid:image002.gif at 01CBFF34.944DF3B0] It just amazed me that, not only did he
not seem to think this skill was worth addressing, but it took a while to
even get him to understand exactly what I was asking for.

While I think this policy is very misguided, and am not even sure that it is
accurate, at least from a national perspective, I'm not going to fight it. I
guess I have gotten along for 48 years without a problem, so I don't
anticipate any to come. I need to  choose my battles, I guess. It was just
really difficult for me to understand their stance, and it has made me
wonder how many other blind people have been denied the adjustment skills
that they need.

Diane Graves
Civil Rights Specialist
Indiana Civil Rights Commission
Alternative Dispute Resolutions Unit
317-232-2647

"It is service that measures success."
George Washington Carver

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