Disability Technology & News

USD Currency Bills Discriminate Against People who are Blind

I found this article to be really interesting as it discuss one of my favorite subject matter…MONEY! Apparently another branch of the federal government is once again violating the American with Disabilities Act by creating money that is not accessible to people who are blind. While the treasury department is clearly in the wrong, they won’t concede and comply with the law by altering the design of U.S. currency bills but instead is fighting it in federal court after a lower court judge found the government to be at fault. Hopefully the check-and-balance of the American government system will iron out and the righteous side prevail.

You can read district court judge James Robertson 26-page opinion asking the Treasury Department to examine the best means of making USD currency distinguishable by the blind. In his paper, Judge Robertson proposed raised ink, modifying the size of certain bills and producing a tactile mark to indicate a bill’s denomination. To my astonishment, the Treasury Department has objected to all recommendations it has been presented with, claiming that the $75 million cost is prohibitive. The Treasury’s solution is to have people who are blind use credit and debit cards, but this is problematic as purchasing daily common goods as coffee or transit fares do not take a swipe. The second solution the Treasury’s came up with is to equip every person who is blind with a currency bill reader. This too is not sound policy as bill readers are expensive at $200 each and also clunky to carry around; the smallest now is 6-inches by 3-inches by 2-inches. In addition, bill readers don’t always work as people can relate the experience of failing to get a crinkled bill successfully inserted into a soda machine. U.S. coins are not a problem for the totally blind. Pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters are all different sizes, and are also distinguishable because pennies and nickels do not have serrated edges, while dimes and quarters do. However, U.S. bills are a problem.

In contrast, there are 180 other countries have bills that are completely distinguishable to the blind. These include Euros, cut in unique sizes for each amount, and Canadian dollars, which are now printed with the denomination of each bill in raised numbering [actually, raised bumps unique to each denomination] that is readable by rubbing one’s fingers over the elevated type.

Foreign Currency

Euro	Euro & British Pound	Yen
Candian Dollars with braille	Swiss Franc

Quite frankly I find the Treasury Department position to be ludicrous. The USD design is a drab compared other international currencies, not to mention seriously being behind in providing a medium of exchange that is universal to all its citizens.

Changing Bills for the Blind
Stark seeks redesign of U.S. currency, with distinct corner notches on most notes
Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau
April 24, 2007
Source: SF Chronicle

Washington — Rep. Pete Stark wants to reach into your wallet, not to take your hard-earned cash, but just to cut the corners off it.

It’s all in the name of making U.S. paper currency more accessible to millions of blind and visually impaired people in the country. Stark, D-Fremont, has proposed redesigning almost all U.S. paper money to meet a federal court ruling last November that U.S. currency violated the civil rights of the blind because it is all the same size and difficult to distinguish.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson of Washington ordered the Treasury Department to come up with a remedy, but the agency is appealing his ruling. The notion of changing the currency is being resisted by trade groups representing the vending machine industry and banks and has even divided the blind community.

Stark says Congress should act now, but even if it doesn’t he might have outlined a possible solution if Robertson’s ruling stands. Like the judge, Stark says that about 180 other countries in the world have avoided this problem by making denominations of paper money different sizes, which the blind can tell apart.

But Treasury officials say other remedies such as readers that can identify the value of money or credit and debit cards are available to the blind. The federal government, which recently spent large sums redesigning paper currency to thwart counterfeiters, also says another change would cost millions more.

And some advocates for the blind say they don’t want special treatment and say the currency issue isn’t much of a problem for the blind when compared to their bigger challenges.

Stark’s proposal, which he calls the Catherine Skivers Currency for All Act, involves what he called the least intrusive solution to the problem. He wants to redesign the $1, $2, $5, $10, $20 and $50 bills to trim their corners into semi-circles so the blind don’t have to rely on the honesty of others to determine the value of their money.

Specifically, Stark wants to trim the four corners on the $1 bill, three corners on the $2 bill, two diagonal corners on the $5 bill, two corners on a long side of the $10 bill, two corners on the $20 bill’s short side and one corner on the $50 bill. The $100 bill would remain as it is.

“This is quick and dirty, and cheap,” Stark said. Other ideas include placing Braille or other raised identifiers on currency.

“Everyone should be able to recognize the denominations of paper currency,” he added. “Why would anyone object?”

Well, lots of people do.

“We think this is unnecessary. We don’t think U.S. currency discriminates against blind people,” said John Pare, spokesman of the National Federation of the Blind.

The federation called Robertson’s ruling dangerously misguided because it is a “feel-good gimmick” that makes it seem that currency recognition is a major roadblock to blind people participating in mainstream society.

Blind people generally fold different denominations of bills in different ways to tell them apart, he said.

Much more important, said the federation’s national president Dr. Marc Maurer, are issues such as creating job opportunities for the blind, who have an estimated 70 percent unemployment rate.

“The ruling will do nothing to alleviate that situation; in fact, it seriously endangers the ability of the blind to get jobs and participate fully in society,” Maurer argue. “It argues that the blind cannot handle currency or documents in the workplace and that virtually everything must be modified for the use of the blind.”

But Skivers, a former president of the California Council of the Blind who is a Stark constituent, disagreed strongly.

“It’s hard to see why anyone would oppose it,” she said.

Skivers said she has been given the wrong change by dishonest store or restaurant cashiers and doesn’t think she should have to rely on the honesty of strangers. “It’s a matter of independence,” said Skivers, who said the blind can also have a hard time using vending machines or some automatic bank tellers.

The state council’s parent group, the American Council of the Blind, brought the lawsuit that is on appeal.

Anita Aaron, executive director of the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco, also supports Stark’s idea. “It’s all about choice,” she said. “Allowing people to independently identify what currency they have without using other technology would serve the largest numbers of people.”

The vending machine industry, which has 7 million machines across the country, generally opposes changes to currency, in part because refitting machines to accept altered dollars could cost as much $400 per machine, or $2.8 billion.

The $30 billion-a-year industry also has a problem with old or ripped bills that already cost some $600 million a year. “We are very concerned that these clipped-off edges would lead to more tears and ruined currency,” said Tom McMahon, chief lawyer for the National Automatic Merchandising Association, the vending machine trade group.

Share This