US Courts: paper money discriminates against blind people
- Thread starter downtown
- Start date
1. verbally tell the blind person the charge is $20 (because he brought $20 worth of merchandise to the checkout)If you tell the blind person its only 20 bucks, but ring up 100.....how are you hurting the blind person?
Ah......I hope this isnt how you bill your clients....cause you are just giving it away.....
2. ring up $100, thus overcharging him by $80
3. swipe debit card
I know of several businesses that are cash only. Yo yourself phrased it as "cash transactions" which implies a situation wear cash is the norm for transactions (becasue perhaps the business does not want to burden itself withthe expenses of a debit card processing system).
Plus, there are certain transactions where I would never use a debit or credit card, despite the availabilty to do so because I do not trust the other party. Taking a cab in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area is one. The blind person should have the option to pay in cash and the government can easily solve this problem next time it updates the currency. Also, one may prefer to pay in cash in this day and age of identity theft and government snooping through electronic transactions.
MobBoss
Off-Topic Overlord
Ah....I hadnt caught you were referring to the debit transaction. You are indeed correct. But, what do you do when he asks for his receipt?
My dad used to have a saying. Door locks are only for keeping honest people honest. In other words, there are always going to be bad people trying to prey on you regardless of all you do to protect yourself. If a burgler wants into yoru house bad enough he will get in. Period. If someone wants to scam a blind person, then they are going to accomplish this - brail or no brail, debit card or no.
Which is fine, however, said business also deprives itself of customers that desires such ease of payment. Let the free market decide.
Shop elsewhere then. Why do business with unsavory people at all?
Again, I dont think it quite as easy to solve, nor do I think the actual benefit of doing so of any real advantage over what we have currently available.
philippe
FYI, I chase trains.
it wouldn't be that much of a cost, heck you could even just change the size of the bills and their texture, that's how we do with the euro, I believe a common thing such a currency should be adapted to all kinds of poeples with disabilities, they never asked to be blind you know.
Besides the cost is not that big, money gets taken out of the circulation if damaged enough anyway, so they will make new dollars no matter what, why not jump in on that and adapt the dollar while you are at it?
Besides the cost is not that big, money gets taken out of the circulation if damaged enough anyway, so they will make new dollars no matter what, why not jump in on that and adapt the dollar while you are at it?
ShannonCT
Deity
The Treasury has been trying to thwart small scale counterfitters that use scanners and printers to counterfit small amounts of money. Putting identifiers on currency that would be hard for amateurs to duplicate and would be easily recognizable to the blind would be win-win, and wouldn't necessarily cost anymore than the Treasury was going to spend anyway.
Just suggesting that one should sort bills by denominations tells how poorly designed the bills are. If the bills come in different sizes and colors, there is no need to ever sort your bills, because the correct bills will stand out anyway. If you would regularly pay with Euros, you would notice how bad the dollar bills are.
Change the size and colour of different denominations. It's what other countries have done for years. I don't understand why every dollar note must be green and small.
Not all blind people are entirely without sight. There is a fairly stringent limit on visual ability instead. Many can see vague colours, and can, in this country, distinguish notes by holding them up to light. Almost all blind people can detect changes in day and night, even if subconsciously.
Not all blind people are entirely without sight. There is a fairly stringent limit on visual ability instead. Many can see vague colours, and can, in this country, distinguish notes by holding them up to light. Almost all blind people can detect changes in day and night, even if subconsciously.
Having our bills all the same size is none of the above . . .
MobBoss
Off-Topic Overlord
Actually, you, me and pretty much everyone else here is utterly clueless as to what the actual cost would be to make this happen. So dont try to sell it as not that big a deal when you really have no idea whether it would be or not.
If anyone does have links or data to the costs involved in making the changes to the new US currency it perhaps could give us an insight on a ballpark figure of what the actual cost might be.
"Government attorneys estimated that the cost of such a change ranges from $75 million in equipment upgrades and $9 million annual expenses for punching holes in bills to $178 million in one-time charges and $50 million annual expenses for printing bills of varying sizes."
From wikipedia.
Judges have twice said that those costs are not prohibitive.
philippe
FYI, I chase trains.
We are completely re-working bills every 2-3 years at this point anyway to stay ahead of counter-fitters.
Seriously coins are win on so many levels, they are even far cheaper for the government!
Simple Simon
Simpleton
Hm, most all civilized countries have paper money that is
a) hard to fake
b) easy to distinguished for average people through color and size differences
c) easy to distinguish for blind people by printed-in Braille markers.
Isn't it time the US joined the civilized world?
Well, if we define the civilized world to exclude the US, sure . . .
Hm, most all civilized countries have paper money that is
a) hard to fake
b) easy to distinguished for average people through color and size differences
c) easy to distinguish for blind people by printed-in Braille markers.
Isn't it time the US joined the civilized world?
Paper money? How quaint and barbaric!
This really is a pretty big issue.
I've worked in state offices for almost 8 years now and many of the "service" jobs in the buildings are staffed by people who are disbaled in one way or another. these buildings have cafeterias and/or newsstands with snacks, and I've known more than a dozen cashiers in these positions who are "legally" blind or worse.
I've seen on more than one occasion people "accidentally" giving the cashiers the wrong amount of money. Usually it gets caught because the cashiers are sighted enough that they can hold the bill up to their eye to double check, but not all of them can do this, they can't take the time to do it every time, and it just shouldn't happen anyway.
If people are willing to take advantage of this for a $2 bag of chips, I can't imagine what happens to a blind shopper on a daily basis. Put yourself in their shoes; it's easy enough to ask someone you trust to sort out your bills so you can arrange them in your own wallet, but also having to trust that you get accurate change everywhere? As has already been pointed out, we change our bills frequently enough these days just for anticounterfeiting measures, making another change should be seriously considered.
I've worked in state offices for almost 8 years now and many of the "service" jobs in the buildings are staffed by people who are disbaled in one way or another. these buildings have cafeterias and/or newsstands with snacks, and I've known more than a dozen cashiers in these positions who are "legally" blind or worse.
I've seen on more than one occasion people "accidentally" giving the cashiers the wrong amount of money. Usually it gets caught because the cashiers are sighted enough that they can hold the bill up to their eye to double check, but not all of them can do this, they can't take the time to do it every time, and it just shouldn't happen anyway.
If people are willing to take advantage of this for a $2 bag of chips, I can't imagine what happens to a blind shopper on a daily basis. Put yourself in their shoes; it's easy enough to ask someone you trust to sort out your bills so you can arrange them in your own wallet, but also having to trust that you get accurate change everywhere? As has already been pointed out, we change our bills frequently enough these days just for anticounterfeiting measures, making another change should be seriously considered.
West 36
Can count up to 4
Well I suppose there are a few people heartless enough to lie about the amount that's been given to them by blind people that changing money may be a good idea.
But then I have to ask, how do the blind know what they're buying is what they want? If they can't see the amount of money they have, can we be sure they got the right thing in the first place?
But then I have to ask, how do the blind know what they're buying is what they want? If they can't see the amount of money they have, can we be sure they got the right thing in the first place?
