Judge's decision is 'on the money'

In either 1999 or 2000, I received a call from Annie Woo of NPR's "Weekend All Things Considered."

She interviewed me because of remarks I had emailed in about the paper currency in America and how irritating it is to handle it and to always try to fold it in different patterns depending on each denomination.

I fold $10 bills in half longwise and than crosswise to get a sort of rectangle, $20 or folded again to make small squares, $5 ar folded in half not longwise but crosswise twice. It's a lot of trouble, it's time consuming, and it's annoying to always have to pay attention as cashiers are handing your change back to you. Some arrange the bills in ascending order from the highest to the lowest while others hand back change in the opposite manner. There are usually people behind me waiting to be served while I futz around with arranging my currency.

Back to that interview. I spoke to Ms. Woo and even changed from my cordless telephone to an older land line because their engineer had trouble getting a voice level. When I listened later that day to the show, I had landed on the proverbial cutting room floor. I could have wished they'd sent me a digital file for my own records. I'm sure the out-takes are not archived at NPR so my witty remarks (she said they were witty--that's how I know) are lost to posterity.

I understand from friends that the UK has had variable sized paper currency for over 15 years. I understand that several other countries use different colored inks to distinguish the various denominations of their paper currency.

It has been said that by asking for this, we send a message to sighted people that we need special accommodations.

Duh. What are Braille, slates and styluses (or is that styli), talking books, SSDI pensions, audio description, service animals, white canes, text-to-speech synthesizers, marked subway platform edges, large-print books, audible street signals but accommodations?

Several of these have caught on with sighted people. Need I mention the billion dollar market in commercial audio books or the usefulness of curb cuts to mothers with strollers or the usefulness of audio description for people who want to follow a TV show but might also like to crochet or knit?

And a New York judge agrees with me on the currency situation.

- Text by David Faucheux