[nabs-l] should the blind adapt to the world, or should the world adapt to us?

[T. Joseph Carter]

Alena,

I promise at these two intersections, it IS loud enough in the right 
conditions.  The block is really short, less than 100 yards, and 
there's a tall building that the sound bounces off of.  When the wind 
is right, it sounds like the sound's in a different spot than it is, 
and it's got enough volume to be confused easily.

I actually tried to come up with a way to change all bills but the 
dollar, and I couldn't find a good way to do it.  Neither the ACB nor 
the NFB nor the Treasury Department came up with a good way to do it 
either, but all of them concluded that changes should be made to all 
but the dollar.

I say change the dollar, but change it last.  Produce the $100 bill 
first at the current size (or a fraction longer), and decrease the 
length of the bills from there.  This allows current cash registers 
to be used, but causes money handling machines to need to be changed.  
That's acceptable, provided that times and tax breaks equating the 
cost of retrofitting over time are provided to offset the cost to the 
private sector.  The $20 and $1 should be last, since the $20 affects 
the majority of ATMs and the $1 affects vending machines.

Option #2 is to stop printing the $1 bill.  The $1 coin would be much 
easier for vending machines to support, and some already do.

Ultimately, we don't know what the Treasury Department will 
ultimately do.  Right now they're considering options, including 
electronic bill identifiers.  I think a barcode printed to be read 
with a specific wavelength of light makes the most sense for this, 
but again it's a change to the currency.  Granted, it's a change that 
makes readers cost like $30, but it's still a change.  It also helps 
deter counterfeiters and gives the blind a way to detect a 
counterfeit bill other than by it not feeling right (the most common 
means of detecting a forgery today..)

This one's a settled issue in my mind.  The ACB won, and I'm not 
sorry they did.  I think they took one hell of a risk in our name to 
do it.  That's water under the bridge.  We continued to fight against 
the ACB on this one beyond a point where our efforts could only cause 
what we most feared, in my opinion.  But that too is water under the 
bridge.  Taxpayers are going to foot the bill for this one, and that 
is settled.  Our job now is to make sure they get what they're paying 
for, in my opinion.

Joseph


On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 07:30:38PM -0700, alena roberts wrote:
>I want to respond to a couple of things. I think we're really off
>topic from where we started with, but that's okay. I think that
>conversation is what I wanted, and all of you have given that to me.
>
>I have never crossed because I heard an audible signal a block away.
>My hearing knows that the sound isn't loud enough, so I ignore it, I
>also always listen to my traffic and the audible signal. I agree with
>Len that the quiter signals that talk to you are better than the
>chirpers, but in my opinion having something is better than nothing.
>Before I moved to Corvallis, I had to cross at inersections that were
>unsafe for me because they wre hard to read. In those cases, audible
>signals would have been very helpful.
>
>As far as the currency goes, I don't think it matters how many
>american dollars are made vs. some other countries currency. There are
>ways to transform the bills without using tactile markings, and if the
>$1 wasn't changed, most vending machines wouldn't have to be changed.
>Money management is such a vital skill in my opinion, and I think that
>I should have the right to use cash if I want to. I choose not to
>because I can't distinguish it on my own, I don't have an expensive
>machine that will tell me what denomination I have, and I am trusting
>sighted people to be honest with me.
>
>Those are just some thoughts.
>
>-- 
>Alena Roberts
>Blog: http://www.blindgal.com/
>
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