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US Paper Money Discriminates Against the Blind

CWRUisTakingMyMoney writes in to let us know about a US Appeals Court ruling declaring that paper money discriminates against blind people who must rely on others to tell them what denomination of money they have. "A US federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that the country's one-sized paper money discriminates against the blind and told the government to change the currency's size and texture. The court upheld a previous ruling in November 2006... [that] had ordered the Treasury Department to find a way to accommodate the more than three million visually-impaired Americans who have trouble distinguishing the different US denominations which are all the same size and color... 'A large majority of other currency systems have accommodated the visually impaired, and the [Treasury] secretary does not explain why US currency should be any different,' the court said in its ruling."

4 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. I must be blind ... by McGiraf · · Score: 2, Funny

    .. I can not see any comment.

  2. Re:Who designed American money anyway? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    While I do agree with you on some points, don't start a fight if you can't finish it. Here's my points:

    *The US has released many iterations of the Dollar coins but no one uses them; people hated the Susan B. Anthony because of the similarity to the Quarter, The Sacajawea Dollar was applauded but mainly collected and the new Presidential Dollar coins have similar collector-based problems. If Americans truly wanted to use Dollar coins, there would be more in circulation instead of sitting in shoe boxes gathering dust.

    *British coinage has way more problems than American coinage. You have a 2p bigger than a 20p, a 5p smaller than a 1p and a 10p larger (thicker, I'll grant) a Pound piece. That two Pound piece while I do like it could cause blunt force trauma if you threw it at somebody. With that many coins in my back pocket I'd develop a back problem.

    What we really need to do is get moving with digital wallets so we don't have to have litigation like this.

  3. Re:My solution by dave87656 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Putting a hole in the US dollar would properly reflect the declining dollar value against other currencies.

  4. Re:Compared to Australian Money... by supervillainsf · · Score: 2, Funny

    We Americans have replaced all our money with plastic too.