Comments for Our Money Too

Comment on Tactile Currency Benefits Everyone by Jake

Jake — Sat, 03 May 2008 23:03:03 +0000

I see this site hasn’t been updated for a little while, but hopefully my comment will still go through and be read. I have had this conversation with many sighted friends, and believe it or not I have run into opposition by a few. I don’t get it! Do these people who oppose accessible paper currency not want us to be independent or what? The funny thing is, some of these people are actually supporting other forms of independence such as taking my own garbage out and walking to work by myself.

Comment on Why Credit Cards Are Not the Answer by Jake

Jake — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 12:16:54 +0000

About two years ago a life-skills tutor and I went to a local store to pick up a window air conditioner that we had purchased online. We found the unit just fine and it has since proved to be a Godsend when it’s in use, but when it came time to pay we ran into a little trouble, or at least I did. My credit card PIN had to be entered, and guess what? That’s right, the keypad was not raised so I had to verbally give my PIN to my tutor and he entered it. Never before have I seen a tactile point-of-sale machine. This story I think clearly illustrates why credit cards are not always a viable solution. I only use my card, which is actually a debit card, to insert into an ATM when I need to withdraw some of those inaccessible bills. BTW, I have used the audio feature of ATM’s before and I find it to be very nice indeed. It’s kind of ironic that ATM’s are accessible and their contents aren’t.

Comment on The National Federation of the Blind Position and OurMoneyToo’s Response by Jake

Jake — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 18:32:14 +0000

I have a very hard time coming to terms with the argument put forth by the NFB saying that implementation of accessible paper money will in fact hurt us. This is kind of like the audio description dilemma. Some people may not prefer audio description, but that doesn’t mean audio description is a bad thing and should therefore be opposed by every visually-impaired person. Just for the record, I really enjoy audio description and think it should be more widely used. I read somewhere else that the reason the NFB all of a sudden has switched their views on the currency issue, is because they weren’t the ones filing this lawsuit and their rivals were. I think this is taking the easy way out. What a bunch of cheapskates! Personal preference is what it all comes down to. If you are opposed to accessible paper currency, you just might stand a better chance of being ripped off and you might look like a total idiot standing there having a sighted person tell you what each bill is, but apparently that’s okay for some people. Not for me! That’s why I signed the petition.

Comment on The National Federation of the Blind Position and OurMoneyToo’s Response by Mike Gorse

Mike Gorse — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 22:26:10 +0000

A brief story: This afternoon, I went to the bakery at the end of the street and gave the proprietor what I thought was a 20 dollar bill, but he told me that it was a 1 and expressed concern that maybe I had been ripped off. I go there fairly regularly and know the owner, so I am choosing to take him at his word, but, as with the time I was told by a casheer that I gave him a $1 bill rather than a $100 bill, I don’t really know what happened. I might have mistakenly placed a $1 bill in the section of my wallet where I normally keep $20 bills at some point, although I don’t recall ever having made that mistake before.

Anyway, this touches on the issue, deemed crucial by the NFB, of how we are perceived by the sighted public, as handing out the wrong bill is an embarrassing mistake to make, assuming that we are really handing out the wrong bill rather than being taken advantage of. One might argue that I should have been more careful and should have taken the bill out of my wallet and put it on my scanner to try to be absolutely sure that it was what I thought it was. However, such measures go far beyond what would be required of a sighted person. Focusing on an individual’s behavior may well be a good idea, but it is not an appropriate or effective way to address a systemic barrier. It would be like pairing two equally-skilled runners in a five-mile race, giving the first runner a two-minute head start, and telling the second runner that, if she loses, then she lost because she didn’t run fast enough. In the long term, we will be most helped to find employment if we can perform tasks roughly as easily and naturally as a sighted person can, so we should work towards that aim of universal design. With money, that means having bills that are tactily distinguishable like nearly every other country, not having to have a bill reader. Given that bills are regularly re-designed anyway and such a change would benefit everyone, including sighted people, and cost a tiny amount compared to what we are spending on weapons and occupying Iraq, this could hardly be considered an unreasonable stance to take.

Comment on The Problems with Relying on a Bill-Reading Machine by Shirley

Shirley — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 00:10:04 +0000

I think everyone who owns a bill reader should use it in public. Most of us have no idea what bill readers are or how to use them, what it takes to make sure you have the right amount of change. This would help educate us. I myself have never seen anyone use a Note Teller. This would bring to everyone’s attention what you have to go through. Nowadays people are in a hurry and don’t have time for someone to run each bill into a machine. People need to see it. Sighted people judge others by watching them. It is also easier for a sighted person to say a Note Teller should be good enough for the Blind or Visually Impaired–at least they have something–when they’ve never seen what it’s really like to use one. If you start using them and slowing things down because the Note Teller won’t read the bill and you have to put it in the machine a couple of times, sighted people will get fed up with this and then things will change. We have to interfere with their lives, show them that the note reader is not practical or functional. This is how a sighted person is going to learn how important changing the paper currency is for everyone. I wish I had one; I would use it all of the time

Comment on Why Credit Cards Are Not the Answer by Karla

Karla — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 04:24:00 +0000

Earlier today, I had to get my application to take the Bar exam notarized before I mailed it in. I found a notary in my neighborhood online, and when I called to verify where he was located, I also asked what his fee was for notarizing a signature (it was $2) and asked him whether that fee had to be paid in cash or if he also accepted credit cards. (I was out of cash just then, and because this errand was somewhat time-sensitive, I wanted to avoid stopping at the ATM to get more money unless it was absolutely necessary.) The man kind of laughed at me over the phone when I asked this question and said, “I’m not going to run your credit card for a $2 fee, sorry.”

I understand that credit card companies charge a fee to merchants when they run credit cards, so if I were a local service provider like this guy who only charges a nominal rate for the service, I probably wouldn’t accept credit cards either. This is just another illustration of why it’s impractical and unrealistic to ask blind and visually impaired people to make all of their purchases using credit cards.

Comment on Why Credit Cards Are Not the Answer by Shirley

Shirley — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 02:23:44 +0000

A lot of people don’t even have a credit card. What if they can’t get a credit card? Maybe they can’t qualify for a credit card. Does this mean they are not entitled to have the money? This way of thinking is discrimination and unfair to everyone. Wake up!!! Women get to vote, work outside of the home and even run a business. At one time Women didn’t have any rights, but because of change, women have rights. Its time for a change again, in our Paper Currency! The blind and visually impaired should be able to tell what kind of paper money they carry around on them just like you and me. It’s possible and it should have been done years ago.

Comment on The Blinded Veterans Association Supports Tactile Currency by Joe

Joe — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 00:59:33 +0000

As a person with sight, I still support using some identifying mechanism for the visually impaired. This could be as simple as altering the size of the various denominations (as we already do with coins) or putting raised marks on the bills. As it stands, we lag behind the vast majority of countries by making our bills indistinguishable for the visually impaired.

Comment on Why Credit Cards Are Not the Answer by Candas

Candas — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:57:56 +0000

I believe that US currency should have some indentation on every domination of bill so that the blind or visually impaired can use paper money comfortably.

The needs of people with vision impediments should not be ignored by those of us, in particular, the US Govt., who can’t relate to their experiences.

Using a credit card isn’t practical for blind people and even those with perfect vision in certain instances. I know that if I can’t use my credit card, I can always go to the ATM take out cash or carry a few dollars with me just in case the corner deli only accepts cash.

I support changing US currency so that it is more accessible to the blind and vision impaired. It just makes sense to me.

Comment on Folding Our Money by Alison Roberts

Alison Roberts — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 00:50:14 +0000

Even if there are sighted customers in line behind you, they probably can’t tell what the cashier is handing you anyway, because U.S. paper money all looks so similar from a distance (especially the newer bills, which aren’t as familiar). In other countries, the bills are different sizes and colors so it’s easy to tell which bill is which, even from a distance.