I just received the two rolls of Alabama quarters that I ordered from the mint, which prompted me to go back and re-read parts of Helen Keller’s The Story of My Life. She has been my hero since I was about eight years old, and the inspiration for a lot of what I’ve done in my life since.
I’m thrilled that she got a quarter of her own, even though the Braille is largely symbolic. I had a blind woman counting out change to me last night, and she had no problem distinguishing the coins. Most blind people do use a folding system for bills, and also rely on the help and honesty of sighted people to sort them. The U.S. is very reluctant to institute currency changes, but with all the new security features, it probably wouldn’t have been too hard to include something that would aid the blind.
Braille is dying out because of technological improvements like voice recognition systems and the easy availability of books-on-tape. It’s not worth the time and effort to convert books to Braille when they have already been transferred into an audio format that can be used by the blind. Braille books are also extremely cumbersome, especially when compared to cassette tapes (or CD’s). Anyone can put a book on tape, but it takes a trained expert with a special machine to convert a book to Braille. Also, many people lose their sight late in life, when it is extremely difficult for them to learn how to read Braille, and their fingers may not have the necessary sensitivity.
There’s a grain of truth in what you say, Earl – not that the U.S. wants to represent lesbians, but that it does want to put women on coins. They tried previously with the Susan B. Anthony and Sacajawea dollars, without much success (at getting the coins into circulation), and my guess is that they were thrilled when Alabama offered them the chance to represent a woman on the quarter. I’m just glad that this will surely increase interest in Helen’s life and work.
According to this article in the International Herald Tribune, it cost France alone 20 billion francs, or about $3.1 billion, to make the change.
Of course, that was the cost of changing a lot of different things that wouldn’t necessarily be affected if the US changed the size and/or style of its currency. As to how much new currency and new scanners, vending machines etc. would cost the US…I dunno. I would, though, foresee a lot of confusion during the period of the changeover. Also, there’s the problem that a lot of people in other countries (Russia, for example) conduct many of their transactions in US currency, and somehow those bills would have to remain legal tender–it would be a real mess.
I’m an Alabama resident, who lives relatively close to Helen Keller’s birthplace, Ivy Green, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. I’m just glad we didn’t wind up with the this on our state coin.
I’m greatly surprised that during the Red Scare that Keller wasn’t burned in effigy, and equally surprised that the rabid pro-America faction right now hasn’t made a big stink.
(Not that there’s anything wrong in my mind with being a socialist, mind you. It’s just that there’s some folks still out there who equate it with all-that-is-evil. My grandfather, for example, is stubbornly convinced that the socialists are trying to Take Over The World. I’ve had the naughty impulse to show him the quarter and say in horrified tones that now we have a mother-lovin’ * socialist * on our currency! Head for the hills!)
Lissa said, “I can understand its dwindling for sommunication, but blind people don’t read any more? As an avid reader, I despise books-on-tape. If I were blind I would much prefer to read with the Braille system.”
The problem with Braille books is that they’re HUGE and HEAVY. It takes heavy paper to create the Braille characters. I worked for a telephone manufacturing company, and they were required to make Braille copies of their training books available. We had a couple sitting around and they were MANY times bigger than the regular copy. And, if I remember correctly, they are only printed on one side of the paper.
But I know what you mean. I don’t like books on tape either. But I think with Braille, you would prefer tape to paper.
Braille is only used by a small portion of blind people–if I’m remembering correctly, it’s something like 10%, but may be even smaller than that (if anyone wants a firm number, I can check a textbook of mine). Remember that many blind people become so later in life, when they would be more resistant to learning a different way to read.
Of course, for folks who are blind AND deaf books on tape would be useless and braille quite valuable.
The percentage of the population who use brailled might be small, but their absolute numbers are still significant and represent several million people. It may be less common, but I doubt very much it’s going to disappear entirely.
