US court: Paper money discriminates against blind

Yahoo ^

[WVKayaker]

This’ll be another excuse to print even more play money and to encourage us to shift to e-money.

They needed an excuse?

As for your latter comment...

[Mr. Brightside]

LLOYD BRAUN: I’ll run in and get the gum.

JERRY: Alright.

LLOYD: Got any money?

Jerry digs his wallet out of his pocket. He opens it and extracts a bill. He peers at it, trying to work out what denomination it is, but the glasses are still too strong.

JERRY: (handing it over) Here.

/snip

LLOYD: Yeah. A hundred dollar’s worth.

JERRY: (incredulous) I gave you a hundred dollars?!

[JustaDumbBlonde]

I’m all for your idea, but instead of ending public monies for art, they would probably argue for a whole new funding program for ‘tactile’ art so that the blind could be equally served. It is a crazy world.

[Larry Lucido]

ROFL!

[corkoman]

Ok this thread needs a counterpoint so here goes:

I have to keep a stash of euros as I am over in Euroland quite abit. The larger the note the more face-value. Even for an able visioned person like myself it is nice to have that reinforcement that I am handing over the correct amount.

I don't mind having different sized bills in my clip.

As long as there is a PHASED-IN period where the new bills replace aging ones (they have a short half-life anyway) this is no big deal.

All the ani-counterfitting tech is immediately transferable.

They can have a contest for artsy bills and that could be fun and CHEAP.

[NonValueAdded]

The appeals court ruled 2-1 on Tuesday that the U.S. didn't explain why such changes would be an unreasonable burden

Perhaps it wasn't explained since Captain Obvious had another engagement that day.

[happinesswithoutpeace]

Threads from the original ruling:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1745375/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1747164/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1745521/posts

[NonValueAdded]

And drive-through ATMs are already ahead of the curve!

[chopperman]

I know a blind woman who can tell the difference in bills simply by touch. Don’t ask me how, but she has no problems at all.

Same here. The guy I knew actually ran a cash register at Penn State.

[DPMD]

This is almost too stupid to comment on. The courts have at last arrived at the point where legislatures are now. So few things left to regulate and criminalize that imaginations are feverishly working overtime to come up with anything - ANYTHING - to rule on, forget how childish and ludicrous it may be.

[ezsmoke]

uhhhh, get rid of the courts and start over...

[CSM]

We should eliminate paper money altogether and just tattoo everyone with a unique barcode.

(Is a sarc tag really needed here?)

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Technically, the courts are not working overtime on finding cases to rule on, they can only rule on that which has come through the judicial system. The crazier the lawsuits, the crazier the rulings. Society has gone off the deep end with a legion of trial lawyers waiting to accomodate them. If the lower courts would stop entertaining these suits, the appeals courts would be far less busy. The crap is running uphill in these matters. JMHO

[Proverbs 3-5]

That is fine but how much you wanna bet some other group will complain and say they are not covered somehow.

As far as reasonable accomodation goes why stop at money. Most airliners can be flown by computer with no human intervention. I think the blind should sue to be pilots.

[Larry Lucido]

George : So let me ask you a question about the tip jar . I had a little thing with the calzone guy this week . I go to drop a buck in the tip jar and just as I am about to drop it in he looks the other way. And then when I am leaving he gives me this look think thanks for nothing. I mean if they don’t notice it what’s the point.

Jerry : So you don’t make it a habit of giving to the blind.

George : Not bills!

[KSoldier]

So basically what they are saying is that it sucks to be blind.

Perhaps someone should invent an alternative to money. Some sort of card that had a credit amount applied to it, so that people do not actually have to use paper money.

But what would we call this card that allows people credit?

The alternative would be to make coins of different sizes.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"Besides, I don’t see what the problem is making different denominations different sizes so the blind can tell them apart more easily."

Wlth all due respect, the problems begin with the manufacturing process. All of the industrial equipment necessary to produce paper money is tooled for same-size currency. It will take billions to replace these. Then you have the paper companies that supply the treasury printers. They might very well have to re-tool.

"It isn’t going to make any difference to your life,...

Aside from the billions in taxpayer dollars that it is going to cost? Billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you're talking about real money!

"... but it would make a blind person’s life a hell of a lot easier and less dependent on other people’s honesty..."

So we change the system that serves hundreds of millions of folks for the relative handfull of blind folks that have a problem with the system as it exists today? Is that reasonable?

[boogerbear]

That’s in accordance to the law of cheap production. It’s cheaper to make one form factor for ATMs than two (one for the walkup with all the braille and one for the driveup without).

[thundrey]

It’s not going to cost billions. Frankly, if it’s going ot make every blind person in America’s life a lot easier when it comes to making transactions, for the cost to you of a sum of money that won’t even make a noticable dent in your pay packet, suck it up and stop whining....

[itsahoot]

I'm just waiting for an ADA lawsuit against newspapers for discriminating against the blind.

They should just print plain white pages, then all would be equal. Not to mention a much better informed public.