Do dollars discriminate? Most Americans wouldn't like depending on the goodwill of others to tell the difference between $1 and $20 bills. A judge wants the government to redesign U.S. paper money so that blind people can distinguish between bills. Leaders of two groups representing the blind offer opposing views of the ruling.Close your eyes, reach into your wallet See digital wallet. , and pull out a piece of paper money. Can you tell what denomination Denomination The stated value found on financial instruments. Notes: This term applies to most financial instruments with monetary values. The denomination for bonds and securities would be face value or par value. the bill is without looking at it? If you can't, you are not alone. This is what hundreds of thousands of blind people all across the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. experience on a daily basis. Approximately 180 other countries have paper money that allows people with vision problems to tell denominations apart: either bills of different sizes or bills with some kind of "touchable" feature. The American Council of the Blind The American Council of the Blind (ACB) is a nation wide organization in the United States. It is an organization mainly made up of blind and visually-impaired people who want to achieve independence and equality (although there are many sighted members with common aims). has been trying since the 1970s to get the Treasury Department to make U.S. paper currency discernible dis·cern·i·ble adj. Perceptible, as by the faculty of vision or the intellect. See Synonyms at perceptible. dis·cern  i·bly adv. by nonvisual Adj. 1. nonvisual - not resulting in vision; "nonvisual stimuli"invisible, unseeable - impossible or nearly impossible to see; imperceptible by the eye; "the invisible man"; "invisible rays"; "an invisible hinge"; "invisible mending" means, but the department has refused to address the issue. So in 2002, the American Council of the Blind sued the Treasury Department, alleging that the government is violating its own requirement to make all federal programs, services, and activities accessible to people with disabilities. In November, a federal judge agreed. (The government is appealing.) Still, many oppose the idea of redesigning U.S. paper currency to make it accessible to the blind. Redesigning the bills and adapting vending machines vending machine, coin-operated, automatic device for selling goods. Many vending machines are capable of making change, and some of the more sophisticated ones accept paper money or credit cards. that "read" money would be costly, they argue. True, but those would be one-time expenses. The blind have devised ways to fold money so we can identify bills for future use, but we can only do that after someone has told us what the bills are. I don't think most Americans would like depending on the goodwill of others to tell the difference between $1 and $20 bills. There would be another benefit to accessible currency. About 70 percent of blind Americans of working age are unemployed. Being able to distinguish bills on our own would greatly expand the types of jobs we could do. Redesigning bills so they're distinguishable to the blind will make it easier for all Americans, regardless of their vision, to tell bills apart. And it's the right thing to do. BY MELANIE BRUNSON Executive Director, American Council of the Blind |
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