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From: The Money for All: Accessible Currency

To: U.S. Congress

January 10, 2007

We, the undersigned blind and visually impaired individuals, or supporters thereof, are dismayed and frustrated by the decision of the U.S. Department of the Treasury to appeal the decision to create accessible paper currency. We support the decision of Judge James Robertson in the federal district court in the District of Columbia for the following reasons:

• Because accessible currency would allow blind or visually impaired people to independently identify the bills in their hand without depending on the good will of others.
• Because accessible currency would increase employment opportunities for blind and visually impaired people, as jobs regarding the quick handling of cash, such as those behind a cash register, could be done easily.
• Because the government's blithe assertion that blind and visually impaired people could simply use credit cards does not take into account the fact that credit cards are not accepted by all businesses the way cash is accepted.
• Because although it is true, as the government asserts, there are machines that can identify paper money as it is currently designed, such machines are unaffordable to many, and are neither as fast or as portable as a person's own hands.
• Because 180 other countries have already proven that it is possible to create currency that allows blind and visually impaired individuals to participate fully in the commerce of their countries.
• And because, it is our hope that a government which is progressive enough to insist on the right of blind and visually impaired people to vote independently, the right of visually impaired and blind people to access information produced by the government in alternative formats such as Braille, and the right of blind and visually impaired people to equal education and employment opportunities will also recognize that blind and visually impaired people should be able to access the information provided in one of this nation's oldest printed materials: our own government's currency.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned

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Source: The Money for All: Accessible Currency Petition to U.S. Congress (Michael Malver)