Disclaimer: I haven’t done any research on this. But this morning, on the radio, I heard about a planned redesign for the $5 bill. In addition to some other changes, they are making one of the numerals bigger and darker - purple, actually. This is explicitly for people with visual impairments. This is a good idea, but what about blind people? As in, people who cannot see a 5 no matter how big and purple you make it? In Canada, there is Braille on money! Sure, blind people in America can use an embosser to mark their cash, and I hear the grain is different on different denominations, but why are we making some concessions to a disability instead of solving the problem?

I am currently re-reading the book I Raise My Eyes to Say Yes, which Carla gave to me a great many years ago. (It was so long ago, in fact, that I was at the time daunted by the size of the book; I was an avid reader even at that young age, but I remember thinking “Wow, there’s sure a lot of words in here.”) It’s the story of Ruth Sienkiewicz-Mercer, a woman with cerebral palsy so severe she cannot speak and has very limited mobility. She was institutionalized for 13 years at Belchertown (MA) State School, where despite the intelligence she demonstrated at home she was labeled an imbecile and treated as such. She communicates primarily through facial expressions and small gestures, and uses word boards to establish topical references. Her autobiography was co-written by Steven B. Kaplan, who worked with her through many hours of yes-and-no questions about her life.

The book was written in 1990, so a great deal has happened since it was published. I thought I would search around for information about how she is doing today at age 54, but to my surprise I found virtually nothing about her current life - only the miserable time she had at Belchertown. I am sure that computers, technology, and the Internet have made her life much easier…but I don’t know how. Steven Hawking is in a similar physical condition and is able to communicate just fine, so I imagine a similar system has been worked out for Ruth - but what is it? Perhaps after I finish re-reading the book I will embark on a quest to figure out what’s happened to her and how she is doing today.