There is so much in today’s society that has been modified or is required to accommodate those with a disability. Until I had a blind child I was blind, so to speak, of so many things that will help her be more independent throughout her life.
For instance, the chirping sound at crosswalks to indicate when it’s safe to walk. The bright yellow markings on curbs—the easiest color for someone with a vision impairment as well as the bumpy markings at the start of a crossing location to mark where to cross. Not to mention all the braille in more places than I’d ever realized before. And those are just a few that jump to the top of my mind as I write this.
One thing that’s been a challenge is money for a blind person. Coins are discernible by size and shape for US currency. But what about banknotes? The newly designed US bills, which are an upgrade from a counterfeiting standpoint in comparison to the old versions, are all the same shape and size when you hold them in your hand. If you can’t see them, you don’t know if you have a one dollar bill or a hundred.
In 2008, US bills were ruled to be discriminatory, but for now, how does a blind person ensure they have the right bills to pay someone, and how do they confirm they have the correct change when paying for something without a trusted second party’s help?
There are folding schemes commonly used with ones being flat, fives folded horizontally, tens folded vertically and twenties folded both horizontally and vertically. Alternately, a small braille embosser tool could be used to impress dots into the paper bills at certain locations to mark denomination. Other countries have addressed this issue in the currency itself, with Canada having raised markings on bills and China having tactile shapes in different locations on different denominations. The Euro currency is different sizes for each denomination.
Enter the smart phone and the staggering array of apps that help do nearly anything you can imagine. After reading some supplementary materials from my latest course assignment, I went to look for an app that would help with identifying currency using your phone’s camera.
The app was free and after opening it the first time and hearing the verbal description of what it did, I was left with what looked like the camera app on my phone. I opened my wallet and pulled out the bills I had. I got them barely in range of the camera when it shouted out, “TWENTY”. I put the stack down on the desk and began to flip through the bills, looking for a smaller denomination.
As I was moving the money around, even with my hand partially blocking the view of the bills, the app continued to call out denominations. I had just spotted a ten when the app, seeing the edge of the bill, called out, “TEN”. I started to laugh. I spread the bills around on the desk and moved the phone over them while it called out denomination after denomination with no lag time in calculating what was visible in frame. I turned bills over and the result was the same.
This free app was more than I would have expected. It was simple. It was easy. It was fast. It made “discriminatory currency” almost a non-issue.
My daughter likes to pay the music teacher or the sitter. Yesterday afternoon when she came home from school I called her and Edna in and told my daughter I wondered if she could pay Edna with the money I had. I gave her the stack of bills and told her how much she needed to collect to pay Edna (who cleans our house). She figured out the app in about ten seconds and had found the right amount to pay Edna in less than a minute. Edna and I just watched and marveled at both the app and my daughter using it.
My daughter wasn’t done though. She wanted to sort all the bills into denominational categories. (It’s a good thing I’d just been to the bank and had extra bills.) She was happily sorting when she realized she didn’t know what a particular pile was that she’d made. But she figured out she could just scan the top of the pile again to find out.
We’re going digital a lot with paying people, for instance, our baby sitter we pay through Venmo now via direct payment through an app on the phone. But banknotes aren’t going away just yet. I think I’ll have my daughter use the app when we need to pay someone in cash in the future. She enjoyed knowing about what money she was holding. Previously she’s just had to hand over papers she knew little about.
The Big Boy Update: My son and I went to breakfast together today. We were talking about how things were going now that hurricane Florence had passed. He said to me, “last week when I was watching, ‘Tracking Florence’ aka ‘The Weather Channel’”. He said it so matter of factly, explaining how it was the show on the station and then all the things he’d learned about Florence. The boats floating by people’s houses is exciting to him and looks fun, but we talked about how it wasn’t fun for the people who’s houses were under water.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter has been singing a song a lot lately. The first line (as she sings it) is: “My country rid of thee”.
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