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A call for change
By Danielle Ameden / Daily News Correspondent
MetroWest Daily News
Thursday, November 30, 2006
| Framingham State College Disabilities Services Coordinator Dennis Polselli,
who is blind, uses separate wallet compartments to keep track of bills of different denominations. Daily News Photo By Allan Jung |
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Advocates for the blind praise judge’s ruling on redesigning bills
As a fourth-grader, Dennis Polselli learned how to differentiate between a silver nickel and a copper penny, telling the two apart by the unique clinks each made when his math teacher dropped the coins to the floor.
For Polselli, now 54, who has been blind since birth, the different sounds, sizes and textures make it easy to tell the difference between pieces of change. Distinguishing between paper notes in his billfold, however, has always been a challenge.
''Coinage was not a difficult thing - it's the paper money,'' he said.
Polselli and other local advocates for the blind and visually impaired yesterday lauded U.S. District Judge James Robertson's Tuesday ruling that demanded the U.S. Treasury Department look into redesigning paper bills to be more user-friendly for blind people.
Some say subtle changes to currency can make the seemingly simple task of forking over $5 as easy for the blind as it is for sighted people. ''We as a society can make that happen,'' said Sally Rizzo, director of vision services at the Massachusetts Association for the Blind in Brookline.
''In Canada, the individual bills are Brailled, and I think that would be an accommodation that's long overdue,'' Rizzo said. ''It's an easy thing to do and it's something that would make a big difference in people's lives.''
The blind have managed their bills in their wallets using strategies like folding paper money into thirds or halves, Rizzo said. That technique forces them to rely on the help of a sighted person.
Asking for help can compromise a person's pride, say advocates for the blind.
''People who are blind like to do things independently,'' said Tom Andruskevich, chairman of the Milford Commission of Disability.
Polselli, who works as disability services coordinator at Framingham State College and serves as chairman of Framingham Disability Commission, says money that is distinguishable with more textural features could mean a lot to the blind. ''It's another step toward being able to do things independently without having to keep asking (for help).''
''I think it's great news, (but) I can't get overjoyed yet,'' said Polselli, who hopes Tuesday's ruling isn't taken to the U.S. Supreme Court on an appeal. ''This is one of those things that makes so much sense I just don't understand what the problem is,'' he said.
Logistically, Polselli said, there are still some kinks to be worked out.
While some are pushing for Braille lettering on paper bills, Polselli said that suggestion is not the right solution for the state's 45,000 blind people - many of whom are elderly with newly developed vision problems who don't know how to read Braille. Sixty-five percent to 75 percent of the blind population are people over the age of 65, said Polselli, a member of the American Council for the Blind.
''You know it (the answer) has to be something other than Braille,'' said Polselli, a graduate of the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown - the alma mater of Helen Keller - who started learning the language of embossed dots as a first-grader. While Braille is often associated with blindness, only 10 percent of the blind population knows the language, he said.
''It needs to be something universal for blind people that speaks to the majority,'' Polselli said. Other proposed options include different sizes and shapes to paper bills, he said, or techniques like punching holes or notches into the paper or using textured fibers.
While the right answer remains to be found, the national mission for a redesign has inspired many local advocates, including a group of volunteers in the Bay State who organized a campaign called It's Our Money Too, to push for making paper money easier to use for the blind and visually impaired.
David Spector of Waltham, who helped found It's Our Money Too, said Tuesday's judicial decision was ''definitely great news for all Americans.'' The fully sighted Spector, whose inspiration for getting involved with the cause was concern over civil rights for the blind, said one idea for a redesign - adding plastic dots to the face of paper money - would not only benefit blind and visually impaired individuals and people handling money in the dark, but it could also thwart counterfeiters.
''What better feature would it be to have an epoxy resin dot that was bonded into the paper?'' he asked. ''That would be very difficult for counterfeiters to duplicate.''
The underlying purpose behind the group's mission, he said, is advocating for what is fair for the blind.
On the group's Web site, www.ourmoneytoo.org, a rhetorical question is posed: Can you tell the difference between a $1 and a $20 bill in the dark? Polselli said he hopes the Treasury Department and courts realize the right answer.
''It's just a question of where are your values,'' he said. ''I'm just keeping my fingers crossed.''