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Judge Says U.S. Money Violates Rights of the Blind
An anonymous reader writes, "The United States is one of the few countries in the world whose currency isn't distinguishable by blind people. Most other nations use raised text, different-sized bills, or other methods to assist blind people in spending their money. If a recent decision by a federal court in D.C. survives appeal, however, that will soon change. Under Sec. 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, federal programs cannot deny 'meaningful access' to people with disabilities. Because blind people are unable to distinguish U.S. currency without assistance, the court held that they are denied meaningful access to their own money. U.S. District Judge James Robertson ordered the Treasury Department to come up with ways for the blind to tell bills apart. He said he wouldn't tell officials how to fix the problem, but he ordered them to begin working on it." How Appealing notes that Judge Robertson opened the door to a speedy appeal of his ruling.
In Australia notes are all different colors (red, green, blue, pink etcetc) to make it patently obvious which note is which. It might not help blind people, but it prevents silly mistakes and makes money easily identifiable!
For blind people they are slightly different lengths, which doesn't really effect non blind people.
In Australia notes are all different colors (red, green, blue, pink etcetc) to make it patently obvious which note is which. It might not help blind people, but it prevents silly mistakes and makes money easily identifiable!
The polymer that Australian Bank Notes are made from also has raised areas to help the blind and the clear windows are also different shapes with a smoother texture. Not just handy for blind people; they're also good anti counterfeiting measures.
The Wikipedia article on the Australian Dollar has a nice chart of the Polymer Series. Having lived in Germany (post Euro), Australia and the U.S.A. I can honestly say that Australian banknote technology is something that the U.S.A. and many other countries really should look into licensing.
Here in the UK, all our banknotes are different sizes and colours, and have a unique symbol on them as well (the £5 note has a blue square, the £10 a brown diamond, and so on). Frankly, as you're rifling through your wallet trying to find the right note, these distinguishing features are a godsend; when I was in the USA on holiday, it was much more time-consuming, although having said that the uniquely-blue $20 note helped a lot.
Having easily-discernable banknotes will save everyone time, and will help the partially-sighted or blind a great deal. Why should they need to buy a device when it can be done by the money printers to everyone's benefit?
And tomorrow the stock exchange will be the human race
At the beginning of 2002 vast swathes of Western Europe managed to change not just the size and shape of their notes but introduced a completely new currency at the same time. In Germany (and possibly other places) they even managed to fix it so that ATMs gave out Deutschmark right up until midnight on Dec. 31, 2001 and as soon as 2002 rolled over, pumped out shiny new Euro notes.
Other countries such as the UK regularly replace their currency designs, usually every 10 - 15 years or so.
If the US did the same, it would benefit maybe not just blind people but keep e.g. the North Korean counterfeiters on their toes.
Here is a page describing the accessibility features of all of the world's currencies as of 1995. Note that the US is the only country on the list that didn't have a single one of the 4 features they look at, and Brazil was very rare in using just bill color (which is obviously useless to people who are completely blind) to distinguish bills. China's currency includes a tactile recognition symbol, and India's uses a different size bill for some denominations.
Besides, a more fair comparison would be not to similar-sized countries, but to other industrialized democracies. But, for the record, almost every country in Africa has (or had, in 1995) more accessible currency than the US.
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