Planet of the Blind: Blind friendly, or not, as the case may be

My friend Scott Lissner, who is the ADA Coordinator for The Ohio State University, just sent me the following two short posts in the body of a single e-mail. In the world of English professors we call this sort of presentation a "paratactic arrangement" which is a fancy way of saying that two texts have been placed side by side for the reader's own comparative assessment.

Scott has entitled his post: "Which Country is more progressive?" The first paragraph is a news story detailing how the Bush administration is fighting a recent federal court ruling that said that America's money should be redesigned to make it usable by blind citizens. Apparently President Bush is bothered by the notion that blind taxpayers should have equal rights when it comes to handling the nation's legal tender. The second post that Scott includes is from our friend Carl Augusto, President of the American Foundation for the Blind. Carl's post shows how some progressive companies in Europe are working to make their products "blind friendly" at the same moment our nation is resisting even the simple act of making our money accessible.

Hmmm. I'm thinking that maybe this year I won't pay taxes. Why should my tax dollars support the administration's efforts to prevent the blind from using currency?

Which Country is more progressive?

Government Appeals Currency Ruling By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON

The Bush administration on Tuesday asked an appeals court to overturn a ruling that would require a redesign of the nation's currency to help the blind. The appeal was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by Justice Department lawyers on behalf of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

The appeal seeks to overturn a ruling last month by U.S. District Judge James Robertson who ordered Treasury to come up with ways for the blind to tell the difference between different denominations of paper currency.

Braille in the Beer Hall? Prost to That! Posted by Carl Augusto on 12/12/2006 2:27:57 PM

I recently read that German beer maker, Uerige, is releasing a line of 0.33 liter bottles with Braille labels. Uerige is known to be one of the world's best "Alt" beer makers and it's encouraging to hear that such a successful company makes efforts to ensure that its products are accessible to all of its customers. This reminds me of other European companies, such as French fragrance company, L'Occitane en Provence, and French wine company, M. Chapoutier. Both L'Occitane and M. Chapoutier label their products in both print and Braille because they believe it's the right thing to do. Let's hope this type of business approach spreads to other areas of the world.

(Connie contributes her 2 cents right here:)
I thought about pulling together a few posts by other bloggers who have touched on this issue, but then I found that our friend Blue, at The Gimp Parade, had already done so. And nobody does it better if you ask me!