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From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Justice For All Moderator
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 5:14 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Show Us The Money

Show Us The Money
  America's Paper Currency Shortchanges the Blind

By Cyrus Habib
January 18, 2007

Blind Americans may soon find themselves able to use money just 
like anyone else. That is unless the Treasury Department is 
successful this month in its appeal of a recent federal court 
order that paper currency be made recognizable to the blind, who 
are currently unable to distinguish one denomination from another.

I, for example, rely on the generosity of cab drivers, baristas 
and store clerks each time I make a purchase with cash. That I 
have rarely been ripped off is a testament to their honesty or my 
charm, but I cannot help but protest the perpetual necessity for 
either. After all, there are 180 countries in which this is not 
the case, because their currency is designed to be distinguishable 
by all.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson asked the Treasury Department 
to determine the best means of making money distinguishable by the 
blind, citing the myriad solutions proposed by the organization 
that filed the lawsuit, the American Council of the Blind. These 
included using raised ink, modifying the size of certain bills and 
producing a tactile mark to indicate a bill's denomination. The 
Treasury Department has objected to all such solutions, claiming 
that the $75 million price tag is simply too high.

Of course, Treasury's lawyers fail to mention that the cost would 
have been far lower had the department acted voluntarily when the 
$20 bill was redesigned in 1998 and the $10 bill was modified last 
year. Instead, it has decided to spend our tax money fighting the 
blind in court, appealing Judge Robertson's decision even before a 
final judgment on the nature of a solution could be reached.

Blind people in the United States suffer from a staggering 70 
percent unemployment rate, and a disproportionately high 
percentage of those who are employed occupy jobs in the low end of 
the service sector. There is no question that the catastrophic 
poverty of America's blind requires a solution. Why not begin by 
giving us access to money at the most atomic level? How can blind 
Americans become truly independent, achieving the success we 
deserve and leaving behind the stigma of federal and state aid, 
without being able to differentiate between a dollar bill and a 
fifty?

The Treasury Department suggests using debit and credit cards, 
disregarding the fact that the lives of many blind Americans hinge 
upon financial exchanges for which plastic is often useless, such 
as catching a crosstown bus, purchasing a cup of coffee or getting 
change for laundry.

These basic day-to-day experiences may not constitute reality for 
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his team, but they certainly 
do for millions of blind and low-vision Americans.

Some have called the lawsuit frivolous, arguing that blind people 
have managed to survive for years by relying on others for help. 
Such reasoning does more than ignore the overwhelming poverty and 
hardship that plague the blind community; it dishonors the 
sacrifices millions of disabled Americans made to help bring about 
passage of the landmark Americans With Disabilities Act. Money is 
essential to a person's participation in society. Its 
accessibility to blind people should be considered as important as 
that of wheelchair ramps or Braille in elevators.

When it comes to accommodating disabilities such as blindness, let 
us continue to lead the world in practice as well as in principle. 
More important still, let us tell the world that we, too, believe 
that blindness should not be an obstacle to financial 
independence. In doing so, let us also take a significant step 
toward ameliorating the living conditions of blind Americans, now 
and for years to come.

The Treasury Department should obey Judge Robertson's order and 
show us the money.

The writer, a Rhodes Scholar and JD candidate at Yale Law School, 
is preparing an amicus brief on this case with Dean Harold Hongju 
Koh.
 
Source: Washington Post
________________________________________________________________

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