Envisioning a change

By Mark Benson / Daily News Correspondent
Daily News Tribune (Waltham, Massachusetts)
Friday, March 25, 2005

Jonathan Simeone displays Canadian currency with raised numbers. (Ed Hoffman photo)

After handing the cashier a $20, Simeone receives bills and change, but he cannot tell by feeling the bills what amount he is getting back.

Simeone believes there is a simple, effective solution to that situation. To make that happen, Simeone has helped start a new political organization - Our Money Too - so he and thousands of blind people in the United States will always get a square deal in the marketplace.

"We should have some independent ability to tell what amount a bill is by its touch," said Simeone, who gathered with several local friends and colleagues at Our Money Too's education event in Boston earlier in March.

"The Treasury Department redesigns its currency every seven to 10 years, and, all we are asking is that the Treasury Department consider making improvements the next time bills are redesigned."

"We are not advocating that Braille lettering be added to U.S. bills. Two of the most common ways that countries around the world deal with this issue is by making bills in different sizes or by creating raised symbols on the bills," said Simeone.

Our Money Too was formed in October 2004, after Simeone and his Waltham roommate, Michael Gourse [should be Michael Gorse --ed.], listened to the 2004 presidential debates and heard nothing about issues impacting people with disabilities.

In just a few months, Simeone, Gourse and Our Money Too have collaborated with Waltham's David Spector to create an organization Web site at OurMoneyToo.org, and applied for nonprofit tax status [not so; we are considering this but have not applied --ed.].

"We decided that we needed to bring disability issues to the attention of the general public, and saw this as an issue that people could understand, and that was easily solvable," said Simeone, who received a law degree from Suffolk University in December 2004.

How does Simeone currently verify what bills are coming into his wallet? He owns a bill reader that states the amount of the bill threaded through the device.

According to Simeone, bill readers are not an ideal solution. Bill readers are expensive at $200 each and are clunky to carry around: the smallest now is 6-inches by 3-inches by 2-inches. Bill readers don't always work: anyone can understand why after failing after several tries to get a crinkled bill successfully inserted into a soda machine.

Simeone said U.S. coins are not a problem for the totally blind. Pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters are all different sizes, and are also distinguishable because pennies and nickels do not have serrated edges, while dimes and quarters do.

However, U.S. bills are a problem.

In contrast, nearly 100 other countries have bills that are completely distinguishable to the blind. These include Euros, cut in unique sizes for each amount, and Canadian dollars, which are now printed with the denomination of each bill in raised numbering [actually, raised bumps unique to each denomination --ed.] that is readable by rubbing one's fingers over the elevated type.

Over the years, the U.S. Treasury has updated American bills to help the sight-impaired.

The Treasury's year 2000 run of $5 bills had large bold type numbers printed on the back, giving many with low vision the ability to see the number 5 on the bill. The Treasury also included a special machine-readable feature on these $5s "to facilitate development of convenient scanning devices that could identify the note as a $5."

The Treasury decided against adding Braille symbols to American dollars [OurMoneyToo.org agrees with this --ed.]. One local professional who educates the blind acknowledges why.

"Braille really is not a viable option," said Jerry Berrier of Shrewsbury, a local professional in the field of blindness education. "The medium has to be very thick to allow the Braille lettering to stand up over time. Also, only about 10 to 15 percent of all blind people can read Braille. We're trying to raise that number, but (putting Braille on U.S. bills) wouldn't be a comprehensive solution for everyone who is totally blind."

Berrier, like Our Money Too, considers the other tactile changes, like changing the size of the bill, to be reasonable measures.

In 2002, the American Council of the Blind filed a civil rights action against the Treasury to compel the government to make tactile changes to U.S. bills. According to Simeone, the action remains in the discovery stage.