What's Next Braille bucks?

[mickeyd]

U.S. District Judge James Robertson said the Treasury Department has violated the law, and he ordered the government to come up with ways for the blind to tell bills apart.

He said he wouldn't tell officials how to fix the problem, but he ordered them to begin working on it within 10 days. The American Council of the Blind has proposed several options, including printing bills of differing sizes, adding embossed dots or foil to the paper or using raised ink.

"Of the more than 180 countries that issue paper currency, only the United States prints bills that are identical in size and color in all their denominations," Robertson wrote. "More than 100 of the other issuers vary their bills in size according to denomination, and every other issuer includes at least some features that help the visually impaired."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,232503,00.html

[mathjak107]

guess it goes with those drive up atm's with the braille keypad.

[Alex]

different sizes would be my guess. Larger denominations should be BIGGER than small denoms. Oh wait, this is the US Government, let's make the currency sizes random! like we have for coins.....

[ladelfina]

Alex, the US coin sizes may SEEM random, but really they are pretty ingenious.

My euro coins (while apparently more "logical") are extremely difficult to tell apart since they have subtle overlapping ranges from small to big as they go up in denomination. It's tough in a pinch to distinguish a .01 from a .02, a .02 from a .05.. .10/.20 a bit easier since they are ridged differently, but they are still exactly the same color and very close in size. There's just not enough distinction from one to the next, and after 3 years here I still need to peer at my change closely.



It's not just a matter of old habit that makes it tough for me with euro coins.. I had no problems at all with the Lire coins, the sizes and colors of which hop-scotched around like current US ones, making it easy to tell at a glance..

Now I say to myself.. "I have some yellow ones and some brown ones!"


Since we have gotten over the shock of greenbacks no longer being so green, and we've survived the "Betty Crocker"/"Kentucky Colonel" make-over of Franklin and Jefferson, et al., I think different sizes would be a good next step, actually.

[mickeyd]

ordered the government to come up with ways for the blind to tell bills apart.

Here's a high tech way to get around the court order. Give every blind person a free electroninc device that can be used to scan a bill and announce it's value. Would be a lot cheaper that changing all of the currency as we know it. I bet the technology already exests in order to do this.

[REWahoo]

Scratch n' sniff...

[Alex]

Originally Posted by mickeyd

Here's a high tech way to get around the court order. Give every blind person a free electroninc devive that can be used to scan a bill and announce it's value. Would be a lot cheaper that changing all of the currency as we know it. I bet the technology already exests in order to do this.

I like it! We can send the same device to drunkards too.....

[mickeyd]

I like it! We can send the same device to drunkards too.....

Sure we could, but would they have to pay for it or would it also be on the house?

[Craig]

U.S. District Judge James Robertson, a 1994 Clinton-appointee ...

[AltaRed]

About time for the USA to get out of the 18th century with their paper currency. Either different sizes or raised numbers would be the logical solution. The issue with different sizes would be for auto bill readers (ATMS, change machines, etc.) while the issue with raised numbers is the tendency for the raised part to be eroded over time with use.

[Craig]

Those poor, backward Americans ... with 20% of world GDP, spread over only 300m people ... how ever will they cope with their anachronistic currency ...


All kidding aside, if we change the U.S. currrency, we should do so for logical reasons. Not because some activist judge stages a coup. We now live under a tyranny of the handicapped in the U.S., and it is an incredible waste of resources ... we left the world of empathy and reasonable accomodation a long time ago.

[Nords]

Originally Posted by Charles

We now live under a tyranny of the handicapped in the U.S.,

Charles, I hope you've lived a few days in a wheelchair or with a blindfold before making statements like this.

Heck, just tie your dominant hand to your belt for an afternoon and try to cook a meal.

[rs0460a]

Originally Posted by Nords

Charles, I hope you've lived a few days in a wheelchair or with a blindfold before making statements like this.

Heck, just tie your dominant hand to your belt for an afternoon and try to cook a meal.

Amen to that. Include trying to live on your income from Medicade or SSD, being denied the best medical care possible (Medicare does not cover much more than the basics), and living in the worse part of town since you can't afford to live where the "normal" people live.

Count yourself lucky - for you (and I would say most of the folks on this board), it's "another day in paradise"...

- Ron

[ladelfina]

argh.. yeah Charles.. I really feel "tyrannized" by those lucky bastards..

The few minor inconveniences you may concede (like having to walk 10' further in the parking lot.. poor lamb!) are way more than offset by the helpfulness of a lot of the ADA standards to ALL Americans, especially oldsters (which we all expect and hope to be, given the alternative).

Things like door handles that are levers instead of round, ramps instead of steps, wider doors, grab bars in bathrooms, TV captioning...

When you see a little 80-year-old lady struggling off a bus in Italy and facing a long flight of ancient stone stairs up to the post office/town hall to do some piece of business.. you appreciate the kneeling buses in the US, and the ADA access standards.

P.S. we do have change/candy/ticket machines here that take a variety of denominations of differently-sized paper money.. it's been that way since before the euro as paper lire notes were also different sizes and colors. ATMs spit out all 20s (as they do in the US, btw).

[Telly]

Originally Posted by Charles

Those poor, backward Americans ... with 20% of world GDP, spread over only 300m people ... how ever will they cope with their anachronistic currency ...

Loved it Charles, absolutely loved it!

I think it is our duty, however, to warn all peoples of the world about our backwardness, our lack of sympathy or perceived lack of sympathy for whatever cause, our political system, our environment, our many "isms", etc. etc. as they surely must not know about them, as they continue to flood here from everywhere, and stay. We must be holding them captive, too. Another failing... :P

[Telly]

But back on the paper money topic...

I suggest that all paper bills be of different shapes!

The triangle, the square, pentagon, hexagon, septagon, octagon, I'll let y'all do 9 sides and above

Uh-oh, maybe we better skip the Pentagon and HEXagon for PC purposes.

I see a man in the future, buying groceries with his new bills, trying to sort it all out at the cashier. Finally in frustration, he says "dammit, just take the whole wad!" and thrusts it at the cashier.

[mickeyd]

The triangle, the square, pentagon, hexagon, septagon, octagon, I'll let y'all do 9 sides and above

What kind of problems do you think this will generate for vending machines, ATM, slot machines, coin change machines etc?

[Telly]

Originally Posted by mickeyd

What kind of problems do you think this will generate for vending machines, ATM, coin change machines etc?

Oh, horrible problems to be sure!

Short term, these may be handled by employing a person, maybe ex-rental car counter people, stationed at every machine to do a financial work-around.

Longer term, a complete redesign of the whole serve-yourself machines. The design work will probably be subcontracted out to India, and the new machines produced in China. Many TV stations will have reporters showing off the new machines in use, many talking heads gainfully employed doing pros and cons of it. A fun time will be had by all. And prices will only be hiked by 5-10% to cover it. What a deal!
Even Canadians will hesitantly and with great fear cross the border to try out the new concept.

Inevitably, someone will throw a triangular bill like a ninja star, scratching someones eyeball. This will lead to more discussion, laws, expenses, and will make many in the world happy again.

[HFWR]

Originally Posted by Charles

U.S. District Judge James Robertson, a 1994 Clinton-appointee ...

[justin]

My mom teaches visually impaired folks for a living. She says what they do right now to deal with money is to fold each denomination a certain way however the initial identification of each denomination must be done by a sighted person.

Here's an excerpt that explains the concept more artfully:

"Blind people use several techniques for organizing money once they receive it. One common meth