WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court says paper money discriminates against blind people.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld a ruling that could force the U.S. to redesign its money so blind people can distinguish between values.
Such changes could include making bills different sizes, including raised markings or printing oversized numbers for people who see poorly.
The appeals court ruled 2-1 on Tuesday that the U.S. didn’t explain why such changes would be an unreasonable burden, especially since many other countries have done so.
Are you kidding me?
I’ll admit that I don’t like that US bills are all green, but I’m not about to take it court.
Should the colorblind folks take it to court? Perhaps.
For the handicapped, of any kind, sorry, but there are some things in life you just won’t be able to do. It’s a disability?! That’s why they call it a handicap.
But discriminatory?! Please…
And really, give the Treasury some credit — the new versions of the bills do, in fact, have larger numbers on them.
Actually if you look at most other countries, the bills are different sizes so people who are blind can tell which is which. We don’t have our coins all the same size, why have our bills the same. This is look at people who are fully blind, not just visually impaired. The color doesn’t matter… it’s the size of the bill. And the article makes a good point; we have changed our bills a few times in the last decade or so, why not differientiate them.
Yes, let’s make the U.S. currency more confusing and waste more money printing new paper money…..Brilliant.
Hi Laura!
True — many countries do have different sizes. I’m originally from Canada, and in addition to being coloured differently depending on denomination, their latest bills even have little braille dots on them. Good idea I suppose, but those dots can be scratched off.
One may wonder why they didn’t just make them different sizes, but it’s likely due to the huge logistical problem that would result in. Think, all cash register drawers would have to be updated (again, in Canada, due to the coinage) and bill readers would no longer work. It would be a huge expense — and not on the government’s dime.
It’s one of those things — you can’t please everybody all the time. And unfortunately for the blind, they’re a tiny tiny tiny percentage of the population so it isn’t logistically possible to cater everything to their needs. In a perfect world, maybe, but in a perfect world, would people be blind?