Julie

WASHINGTON — American paper money represents an unfair impediment to the blind, and the Treasury Department must come up with new U.S. currency to help the visually impaired use cash, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson said keeping all U.S. currency the same size and texture violates the Rehabilitation Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in government programs.

"Of the more than 180 countries that issue paper currency, only the United States prints bills that are identical in size and color in all their denominations," Robertson wrote in his ruling. "More than 100 of the other issuers vary their bills in size according to denomination, and every other issuer includes at least some features that help the visually impaired."

Day Al-Mohamed, director of advocacy and government affairs at the American Council of the Blind, said that most of the world's currency is distinguished by color, size, perforations or tactile symbols. The Euro, for instance, can be determined by the length of the bill — the higher the denomination the longer the bill.

"Saudi Arabia has money that varies in size based on denomination," she said. "If so many other countries can do it, why not the greatest country in the world?"

"It's exciting from our perspective. It's an area that doesn't get a lot of attention. I give ACB a lot of credit for hanging in there," said Andrew Imperato, president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities. "Hopefully it's just going to make blind people able to live more independently."

But John Paré, director of public relations for the National Federation of the Blind, the nation's largest organization representing blind people, said identifying the money is hardly the most difficult obstacle for the blind to overcome.

"The focus for improving the lives of blind Americans needs to be put on earning money not figuring out how to identify money," he said. "Over 70 percent of blind Americans are under-employed or unemployed and this is what needs to be addressed.

"It really is distracting to have this lawsuit," he said, since assistance should concentrate on people "who don't have the money in the first place."

Blindness is measured as 20/2,200 or worse vision, according to Al-Mohamed, who said many more people with still limited sight have better vision than that.

About 7 million Americans are blind or visually impaired, and the numbers are expected to increase by 4 million by 2015 as baby boomers age, Al-Mohamed said. The majority of people with vision loss problems get them after age 45, she said.

For many blind, working with currency often relies on the "kindness of strangers," Al-Mohamed said.

Paré and Al-Mohamed agree that current tricks help the blind manage their cash, for instance folding different size denominations different ways and leaving one dollar bills crumpled.

"There are techniques for identifying currency that blind people utilize today that work reasonably well," Pare said. "Every single organization that deals with teaching blind people how to deal with currency teaches how to do that."

But Al-Mohamed said that blind people often resort to using note-tellers, portable readers that can cost $300 per machine. Often, they don't work when bills have been folded or crumpled and frequently it's inconvenient to use in a busy store, she said.

"The way a lot of people distinguish bills now is they rely on a cashier to tell them what bills are and fold them different ways, but that's kind of a vulnerable situation," Imparato added.

In the lawsuit, which has been in the court system for four years, government attorneys argued that forcing the Treasury Department to change the size of the bills or add texture would make it harder to prevent counterfeiting. Robertson was not swayed.

"The fact that each of these features is currently used in other currencies suggests that, at least on the face of things, such accommodations are reasonable," he wrote.

"I'm sure there were concerns around the cost of coming out with all these new bills (to prevent counterfeiting)," Imparato said. "When you're already going through the cost of the new design, I don't think it would cost a lot more to build in accessibility."

He acknowledged that many Americans may not want to make the change to different sized currency. Several attempts to move U.S. currency to a dollar coin have failed in the past, though the Treasury Department announced last week that it is going to give it another go with new coins struck with images of the deceased presidents.

"The main argument in favor of not doing that is tradition, and tradition and accessibility do not always mix," Imparato said.

Robertson wouldn't say how Treasury must do it, but he gave the government agency 10 days to start working on new bills that the blind can tell apart.

The Treasury Department refused to comment on the case, saying that it's still pending. Paré said that his organization wasn't involved in the lawsuit, and he can't speak for the Treasury Department, but he did "get the sense that it was going to be appealed."

Al-Mohamed said she expects members of her organization will have a sit-down soon with Treasury officials to consider changes to be made. She said the group is not overly particular about which changes are offered as long as they are helpful and can be done in a reasonable amount of time. She said already several of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's presses are set up to deal with specific denominations.

"I don't think it quite matters as long as it allows for identification without sight," she said of any proposed changes. "Sooner is better" but it "depends on the changes being used."

ACB is not going to demand of Treasury "wild and crazy changes, you have to do it now," she said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,232503,00.html

GVChamp

I wonder how in the world they plan on managing that. Making bills different sizes?

__________________
"The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood"-Otto Von Bismarck

Sombra

Switch to the EURO.

Different sizes and marks blind people can feel.

Anon

I propose we execute the blind for the sake of expediency.

ArmchairGeneral

It seems like a reasonable idea, but the judge is not the one who should make that decision. More judicial legislation.

__________________
"Apocalyptic thought is curiously pleasurable."
-Theodore Dalrymple

Julie

That would also be my best guess.

sappersgt

Would they possibly mint multi-dollar denomination coins? Imean we have one dollar coins. Why not five, ten and twenty dollar coins?

gunnut

Too heavy to carry.

Next thing we know, the blind will demand that credit card charges be accessible to the visually impaired.

I'm torn between the two. On the one hand I like our tradition where we have all bills the same size and the same color, as opposed to the toy money printed by other nations. On the other hand I do want to help the visually impaired because I simply cannot imagine losing my sight and still function in this society.

__________________
"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

Julie

Why don't they just have a debit card or something. I don't hardly ever carry cash with me anymore. It would be easier just to make businesses be able to accept a debit card for blind consumers than to change the currency.

gunnut

I think that's a great idea. It's easier to install voice functionalities at the terminals than to change our currency.

Stan187

Can't we just make a bill textured differntly where the number is printed?

gunnut

Any texture built into the paper money will eventually wear out. It might wear out before the bill itself wears out. Then we will have to replace a bill that's otherwise perfectly good for circulation.

FOG3

...
Don't the standard credit/debit card readers already have braille print on the keys? I could swear they already did. Either way the Judge is going well outside of his authority. The guy is a Clinton Appointee, and has made some rulings against Bush Administration policy of note as well.

Debbie

Millions are spent in the new designs of paper money to make it secure not to mention hours worth of design. The bill itself can be any size of course without breaching the security of the document, but back to the drawing board because you just can't shrink up the design and security features and start over. So the Treasury Department needs to get ahold of their people who do these things - a local Minnesota company for some of it and have them re-do the design/security features for all of the paper. This would take loads of time not to mention the cost. Then all of the re-printing, taking current bills out of circulation -etc.

Going to a debit card system would make more sense from a cost standpoint but then there will be someone out there who might feel that being able to only use a debit card because they are blind is discriminatory and file a lawsuit.

The solution - the paper money-more time, more cost, more hassle, but no lawsuits.

gunnut

There comes a point when a handicapped person should just admit that he's not exactly the same as others. We don't let blind people drive. In fact, sight is perhaps the most important sense we have. Losing it is tragic and devastating. There's no shame in admitting that. And we're not making fun of them. Why do these people insist on being treated the same? If they really are the same as the rest of us, then why do I get fined if I park in their spots?