Thursday, May 22, 2008

Money Woes?


As a follow-up to yesterday's blog post, my friend, Jane, shared this news item about making money accessible to people with blindness. Apparently, Jimmy Barrett, a morning radio news personality at one of our local radio stations made the issue his Question Of The Day, and took a poll on how his listeners felt. The lead-in to the poll was:

Is This a Fair Accommodation For The Blind?

A U.S. Appeals Court has ruled that the U.S. Mint needs to make our paper currency more friendly for the blind. The Euro for example comes in different sizes depending on denominations. It also includes a foil seal that a blind person can feel for additional information on the bill. The court is not suggesting that we go back and redo all of our old currency, but they want a plan put together for the future. I wonder what might be next? There are all sorts of areas where we still don't have special signage for the blind. The grocery store, retail merchants. What about using a debit card? How far can we go for those who have sight issues? It's my Question of the Day.


And here are the poll results:

BEST WAY TO FIX THE PAPER CURRENCY PROBLEM FOR THE BLIND:

15.85 % - Make the bills for different denominations different sizes.
14.63 % - Make bills with Braille.
69.51 % - It's too expensive to fix. You can't make accommodations for everyone.


Do these numbers surprise anyone? How do they make you feel? Do you agree or disagree?

3 comments:

mommy~dearest said...

Wow- makes me feel pretty empty that the majority of people feel that way.

Anonymous said...

That truly sucks. What is with people? Don't they ever stop to think about other people and what the right thing to do is? Needless to say it makes me angry.

Michelle Morgan-Coole said...

I read your post yesterday and it really got me thinking. Well, in all honesty, I wasn't sure what to think. Initially, I questioned whether it was asking too much. But it stuck with me. I thought about it some more, did a little research (Google is my friend!) and decided differently. I wrote about it here.