It's time we stopped overlooking the blind

I know we've all heard stories about people living with various disabilities. Some of these disabilities are brought on at birth through unknown (or sometimes known) causes. They can include various deformities, developmental problems, cognitive problems, deafness, blindness, heart problems...the list just goes on and on. Some people develop these problems later in life - through war, accidents, bad decisions, disease or illness, or sometimes they just don't present themselves until late.

And we often hear various sides to this tale. Sometimes they're triumphant - about how people overcame these disabilities and achieved things many of us could never dream of even living without such hindrances. Sometimes, these stories are tragic - reminding us of just how lucky we are.

I am (somewhat) ashamed to admit that of all the stories I've heard, no one's ever really realized, until now, just how overlooked the blind have been when it comes to various things. I mean, I'm sure the curious child we all once were at some point in time has asked "how does a blind person know how to pay for something?"

But how many people who could have answered that question ever really asked?

Sadly, very few (or none) until now...

According to The Associated Press, a federal appeals court has determined that the United States is discriminating against blind people by printing paper money with no discernable marks to allow them to differentiate among their varying values.

This ruling could force the United States Treasury to completely redesign our paper money (again):

Suggested changes have ranged from making bills different sizes to printing them with raised markings.

Now, here's what I don't get. We've been redesigning our money for ages now. It seems like we jump at the chance to redesign our money for any excuse. During the 1950s - we jumped at the chance to redesign our money to include reference to God for crying out loud - just to prove we weren't as ready for a complete separation of Church and State as our Founding Fathers had tried to implement. And how long ago did the new twenty dollar bills come out? I can't remember exactly when off the top of my head, but it was sometime in the past five years.

So why the fuck are we fighting over this redesign?

The American Council for the Blind sued for such changes but the Treasury Department has been fighting the case for about six years.

The U.S. acknowledges the design hinders blind people but it argued that blind people have adapted. Some relied on store clerks to help them, some used credit cards and others folded certain corners to help distinguish between bills.

You know what? I'm glad that this decision was made. I doubt that the intent of the paper money was ever to fool or otherwise hinder blind people - so I don't exactly consider it discrimination. But I am glad to see that if we are going to continually redesign our money anyway - we'll be doing it for a valid reason - a reason that should have been considered a long time ago.