U.S. court: currency discriminates against the blind »
Posted By TechnologyExpert 4 months, 2 weeks ago in NewsThe Treasury Department discriminates against millions of Americans who are blind or have poor vision by printing paper money that makes it impossible for them to distinguish between denominations, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday.
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Comments So Far: 25
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foksipayne4 months, 2 weeks ago
But it would take care of the dishonest bass tards, who would sink to the level of taking advantage of the disadvantaged.
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libsRfunny4 months, 2 weeks ago
I don't think it's possible for currency to "discriminate." It's an inanimate object, after all.
I suppose braille might not be a bad idea. Some have suggested different size bills.
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joeblowe4 months, 2 weeks ago
Sorry. This court has no standing in the matter. The U.S. constitution gives CONGRESS the job of "coining" money and regulating the value thereof. Since the coining (or, presumably, printing) of money is a CONSTITUTIONAL matter, any law that seeks to undermine or modify that authority short of a Constitutional Amendment is ... unconstitutional. If CONGRESS decides that the current form of the money is unacceptable, then THEY have the authority to change it - NOT the courts. Since the A.D.A. and others acts designed to accommodate the crippled do NOT specifically mention money, we must presume that they do NOT apply to the currency. Anyway, that's my take.
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LeftTurn4 months, 2 weeks ago
They can, and do pretty much what they want these days. I assume that they ruled to have it go to DOJ to further discuss if the current currency is indeed unconstitutional to the blind, I doubt anything will come of it.
Or you could just carry all 1's and/or have a check card, which most all places except anyway. And you could fold larger bills a certain way from a bank teller if you need cash. You could cut a small portion of the corner at 45 degree angle or use a hole punch. I would think some perforated lines to denote amount, a large embossed number or heck, just make them different fruit smells.
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BB644 months, 2 weeks ago
Joe, my firm works with some of the controllers for the US Mint and this is truly a concern because of activist judges. However, remember, the ADA was the same bunch of morons who some how managed to get the Braille on the drive through cash machines. Banks found it was cheaper to rebuild the keyboards then try to fight this in the courts.
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libsRfunny4 months, 2 weeks ago
I sunk it based on the premise the Treasury Department is discriminating against blind people. I seriously doubt anyone in the Treasury Department is out to screw over the blind.
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amazed4 months, 2 weeks ago
I have a friend who has been blind since birth and managed to get through and build a reasonably successful law practice. She is a gifted and independent person with a guide dog who assists her in many ways, but the two things she cannot do on her own is get herself somewhere that public transportation doesn't go and is beyond walking distance and handle her own money. Yes, she folds different bills in different ways, but she still needs someone to tell her which bill is which and she must "depend on the kindness of strangers" to insure that she has received the correct change.
I don't know if she's ever been ripped off, but I am sure that there are those out there who would steal from a blind person.
It is hard to be independent if you need someone else to count you money for you and tell you what you've got.
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aceofspades14 months, 2 weeks ago
Because it's sort of silly?
OK - but I travel a lot & different size currencies that are used in other countries are pretty handy if you don't want to take out your wallet or show you money - you can tell the amount of the bill you want by just knowing its size. Forget about being blind - it's pretty handy as a safety feature
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BB644 months, 2 weeks ago
Handy? Do you realize of you go to this, there isn't a cash drawer, automated teller, bank, counters, scales or anything that deals with cash that will be able to use your "handy" solution. This change will cost billions of dollars to work around. Then again I will make money on you the dumb taxpayers. My firm has a divisions that handles factory automation and printing equipment. The mint will pay us to redesign the press controls and new machine tooling will be required to build replacement parts for everything.
This is possibly one of the dumber ideas to come out of our courts.
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