Now things are just getting OOC

I'd like to preface this post by stating that my grandfather was blind, so I am not unfamiliar with, nor unsympathetic to, the issues affecting the poor-sighted and sightless. That said, this sh*t is totally whack!

November 30, 2006, 8:33 am
reports the USA Today. The opinion could force the government to change the design of U.S. greenbacks; one option would be to have different size bills, just like the rest of the world.
The government said the changes would cost too much. But Judge James Robertson said the need to make money accessible to the blind outweight the costs. “Blind or visually impaired people cannot make effective use of American currency without help,” he wrote in the 26-page ruling. “There was a time when disabled people had no choice but to ask for help — to rely on the ‘kindness of strangers.’ It was thought to be their lot. “We have evolved, however, and Congress has made our evolution official.”

The government says it hasn’t decided whether it will appeal the decision. Vending machine operators are bummed, reports the USA Today. The case was brought by an organization called the American Council of the Blind, but another group, the National Federation of the Blind, criticized the ruling. Said its president, Dr. Marc Maurer:

The blind need jobs and real opportunities to earn money, not feel-good gimmicks that misinform the public about our capabilities. . . . This ruling puts a roadblock in the way of solving the real problem, which is the seventy percent unemployment rate among working-age blind Americans that severely limits our access to cash. The ruling will do nothing to alleviate that situation. . . . It argues that the blind cannot handle currency or documents in the workplace and that virtually everything must be modified for the use of the blind.

Comments

Instead of making different bills and thereby making them more susceptible to counterfitting, the mint should make coins in the same denominations as regular bills.
Comment by B. Markley - November 30, 2006 at 10:12 am

this case was the first thing i thought of when i woke up this morning…coins are the solution
Comment by on the brain... - November 30, 2006 at 12:10 pm

Are federal rulings published in Braille?
Comment by Fahrenheit 450 - November 30, 2006 at 2:24 pm

Until the prices are put in Braille, how do I know I’m not being overcharged?
Comment by Hellen Keller - November 30, 2006 at 2:41 pm

Thank you, Dr. Marc Maurer, Fahrenheit 450 and Helen Keller. At least three people realize the absolute absurdity of this ruling.

Wordsmith that I am, I cannot adequately express my extreme disgust with this ruling and with other legalities of its ilk. Isn't there some theory that all Men are created equal? How can we say that with a straight face at the same time we are carving out exceptions left, right and sideways for every "special interest" group? Or worse, while we are creating "special interest" groups without the input or request of the people affected?

And, moral tenets aside, is not creating an entirely new currency the single most impractical answer to this issue??? Even the suggestion to create or make more readily available coins in the same denominations as our bills is ill conceived. I hate carrying around the change from a few cash transactions...I cannot even imagine the annoyance and physical strain of carrying around a bag full of coins all the time. For reasons that are not immediately important, I have $1,100 in my wallet right now. How much would that weigh in coinage?