(AP) Judge: Make Bills Recognizable to Blind

Judge: Make Bills Recognizable to Blind


Tuesday November 28, 2006 10:01 PM

By MATT APUZZO

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - By keeping all U.S. currency the same size and texture,
the government has denied blind people meaningful access to money, a federal
judge said Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson said the Treasury Department has violated
the law, and he ordered the government to come up with ways for the blind to
tell bills apart.

He said he wouldn't tell officials how to fix the problem, but he ordered them
to begin working on it within 10 days. The American Council of the Blind has
proposed several options, including printing bills of differing sizes, adding
embossed dots or foil to the paper or using raised ink.

"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. "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."

-snip-