Judge Says U.S. Money Violates Rights of the Blind

An anonymous reader writes, "The United States is one of the few countries in the world whose currency isn't distinguishable by blind people. Most other nations use raised text, different-sized bills, or other methods to assist blind people in spending their money. If a recent decision by a federal court in D.C. survives appeal, however, that will soon change. Under Sec. 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, federal programs cannot deny 'meaningful access' to people with disabilities. Because blind people are unable to distinguish U.S. currency without assistance, the court held that they are denied meaningful access to their own money. U.S. District Judge James Robertson ordered the Treasury Department 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." How Appealing notes that Judge Robertson opened the door to a speedy appeal of his ruling.

Money Reader

[Ice Wewe]

Well, you have to carry it around, but there are machines out there that when a bill is scanned through them, will report it's value. So, is there really a need to redesign the bills so that they're accessable to the blind?

Re:Money Reader

[Yahweh Doesn't Exist]

are the readers free?

Re:Money Reader

[eggoeater]

are the readers free?

Yes, they are.
They're called debit card readers.

Seriously, I worked with some blind people in college and they would just use a credit/debit card for everything.

Re:

[Sox2]

Not everywhere takes credit/debit: try using one on a coke machine or at a hot dog stand and prepare to go thirsty/hungry. The inability to distinguish notes is quite a big deal to the substantial number of people with sight discibilities. The US currency has a history of being slow to adopt sensible measures - only relatively recently was a realistic attempt at address forgery added to the greenback.

Re:Money Reader

[aedil]

Hm, I have yet to see a free money or debit card reader anywhere. For bills, money identifiers are quite expensive and a bit bulky. As far as debit card readers, those are not free either. Sometimes state agencies for the blind may be willing to pay for one, on an individual basis, but that certainly does not apply to the majority of blind people.

Also, note that you can't just use debit cards for everything. There are quite a few things in life that you do need cash for, and blind people should not be excluded from being able to use regular money.

Finally, making bills accessible isn't really rocket science. Looking around at other countries around the world, the US is really far behind in this. Unfortunately for the blind, the US treasury has a very large loophole (although it could make for an interesting legal battle): all US currency ever printed remains legal tender, so even if new bills are made accessible, there will remain a large amount of inaccessible bills in circulation for a *long* time. Other countries have been able to replace bills. On the other hand, that also means that it is even more important for the US to act on this immediately, because the problem only gets bigger (and they already missed the boat on the last bill redesign (using colour) that went through recently).

Re:

[PDAllen]

Notes remaining legal tender isn't really all that uncommon. What everyone does is to simply stop reissuing the old variety, so every time an old style note goes into a bank it gets destroyed, and a new style note comes out in its place. Give it six months and you still see a few old style notes about, but not very many - think about how long you normally hang onto a note for: a few days at most. This is also why you don't see too many ripped and tattered notes about, banks destroy them when they get them.

Re:

[ikkonoishi]

Yeah for one thing you can't stuff debit cards down a stripper's thong. And clubs already charge extra for blind people.

Re:

[Colonel Angus]

I don't know if this trend is happening elsewhere, but many stores in my area charge a fee to use debit cards.

Some have a fee no matter what you owe. Some charge if it's under $x. Some don't charge at all, but it's becoming much more widespread.

I've gone from being a debit card whore (hadn't carried a bill in my wallet in about 5 years) to cash again because of this.

I wouldn't want to be forced to use my debit card and lose more money with every transaction just because I'm blind. There's not always anot

Re:Money Reader - Found step 2!

[mwvdlee]

1. Use hole-punching so blind can read bills.
2. Punch the $100 hole pattern in current $1 bills.
3. Profit!

Re:Money Reader - Found step 2!

[Aladrin]

This is modded 'funny', but instead I would mod it 'horrifying'. This is EXACTLY how the system would be exploited. The only use for this system is to make it so blind people don't need to ask for help to verify the money is legit. This con would then make it so they still need to ask for help. How did anything improve?

Okay, I suppose if they want to count the money in their wallet, and they KNOW it's all legit, this would help. But they each probably already have a system for that, anyhow. Different folds, dog-ears, etc. At the expense of the whole of the United States, we can help them NOT ONE BIT.

Sounds great, let's do it.

Not that I'm advocating the hole punch method

[benhocking]

But the solution to the aforementioned problem is to make the highest currency bill have the least holes. Therefore, you could turn a $100 bill into a $1 by punching holes, but not vice-versa. There are other problems with the idea, of course.

Re:Not that I'm advocating the hole punch method

[zoney_ie]

How about just using a wacky scheme like other countries; have each note in a different colour (helps partially sighted "blind" people who can distinguish colour, not to mention helping everyone else distinguish quickly), have each note a different size (helps everyone even if not the only measure to be taken), have tactile surfaces (helps blind and is another non-trivial mechanism that counterfeiters have to copy), have the numbers written large and clearly (again, helps everyone, and helps a lot of partially sighted, incl. even just longsighted).

Seriously, this stuff is not rocket science. I sincerely hope that this judgement means the US govt. will stop living in past centuries, at least when it comes to banknotes. The US is so *old* when it comes to so many things - I was astonished when I visited there! "Old Europe" is nothing like old, so much upheaval in the last century.

Re:

[fingusernames]

I traveled throughout Europe this summer, and Australia and New Zealand in '99. I'm sure I am just too accustomed to my American money, but while the Monopoly money was entertaining, I also found it annoying. Way too many coins in the Euro-zone and England. The pound coin in England is cool. The multiple colors weren't bad for notes, but the varying sizes were irritating. Not due to any problem innate with the bills, but due to habit.

I'm accustomed to just flipping through bills, lined up neatly, and knowin

Re:Not that I'm advocating the hole punch method

[Columcille]

I've just got back from two months in the USA, and it was a huge pain trying to find the correct note in my wallet

People adjust to what they're used to. I'm quite used to looking at the numbers, you're used to looking at the colors. Different colored currency wouldn't be too big an adjustment, thought for most people in the U.S. it's just as easy to look at the numbers. Varying the size of the currency would be a major pain, I'd hate to have to jumble different sized bills. Yet for many people around the world it's not a problem at all. They've gotten used to it. We could get used to it too if faced with it long enough. They could get used to our system if faced with it long enough.

Re:Not that I'm advocating the hole punch method

[Columcille]

Plus, we get none of that " 98 x $1 bills wrapped in two $100s " con over here! ;-)

Yeah, that one got me just last week. :/

Re:

[identity0]

Yes, but it's still pretty bad that the bills have basically the same designs except for the portarit and the face in the corner. I know they have new designs for bills now, but they've made it consistent across the different bills again, which does not help things.

You could look at typical playing card designs, which are designed so that it's very hard to mistake one card from another. In addition to the numbers in the corner, the picture in the middle are made very different so you don't have to look clos

Re:

[adavidw]

if people from Europe came over and started exclusively using our currency for a long enough period, they might not like it at first but I argue that they'd get as used to it as they are to their own currency now.

Unless, of course, they're blind.

Re:

[Lurker187]

...and so the hole-punching gives you a way to scam the blind based on the old joke "Do you have two tens for a five?"

No, the "marking" will have to be something much harder to fake, so it can't be done casually or quickly.

I'm thinking bumps in the paper; not raised, like Braille, but extra paper pulp pressed into bumps, ridges...actually, the more complex the better. The extra paper will not wear down easily. Maybe even plastic pressed into the paper, like the current plastic strips, but thick enough to ca

Re:

[TheRaven64]

Are you aware that US money is the easiest to forge in the world? This is really helped by the fact that the paper is easy to get hold of (you can bleach a $1 bill, and then print on it to get a $100 bill, which you can't do for other currencies where the larger notes are physically larger).

Changing vending machines isn't that difficult. In the UK, we've changed the size of 5, 10 and 50 pence pieces in the last 20 years (the 10s and 5s were changed at the same time), and the vending machines adapted.

Re:Not that I'm advocating the hole punch method

[suggsjc]

But hopefully the increase in GDP from tape manufacturers would offset the loss due to fraud...

I'm all for equal opportunity and everything. But this exact debate has come up time and time again. How much should the general population be subjected to via gov't mandates to accommodate disabilities?

I'm sure when we began mandating wheel-chair access there was an outcry because the cost of an average building was going to increase by a factor of X. And in all likelihood X would be larger than the returns provided the building owner due to increase sales of to people using the wheel-chair access. So, in that sense we are forcing inefficiencies on businesses (this is just one of the many ways gov't forces itself upon us and we wonder why its hard for businesses to succeed). But now wheel-chair access is an accepted stipulation for all new construction and its costs aren't even directly noticed/tracked. Does that mean that accommodating disabilities is a bad thing? No. Would it be better if it were up to the individual business owner? Maybe, but who would willingly spend money they know would never be recouped...probably no one (except nursing homes, hospitals, etc...because they would actually benefit from that). For a quick tech side-note the same ideas apply to web design (screen-reader friendly design, etc)

So to wrap up a post that could/should go on for a while. Accommodating disabilities does create inefficiencies (don't think there is an argument to that). However, the real question should be whether or not those inefficiencies are acceptable to mandate on society (some are, some aren't). Anyone that thinks we should accommodate ALL, should just go ahead and be deported. Everything would have to be colored black and white (to accommodate color blindness). All visible notices would have to be combined with as audible counterpart (for the blind) because braille would still not accommodate the braille illiterate. You see the point...its hard to determine where the line should be drawn.

I personally don't think the economic impact would be justified due to the fact that we are becoming less and less dependent on physical access to paper money. A better solution would be to either make all ATMs blind accessible (although audible interfaces would be bad for privacy) or provide free braille friendly debit card interfaces (not even sure how that would work). Again, a difficult situation.

Re:

[bmwm3nut]

I think there's a difference between mandating all public buildings to have wheelchair ramps and changing the money so blind people can use it. In the first case, you're making a regulation that affects a private business. If I own a business and don't want to have wheelchair ramps, that may make me a jackass, but it shouldn't be illegal. And disabled people can choose not to do business with me. However, the government owns the monopoly on money. If people are forced to live under our government and u

Re:Not that I'm advocating the hole punch method

[BeanThere]

You don't think there's any economic benefit to helping blind (and other disabled) people participate productively in the economy? Do you think it's cheaper for taxpayers to have them all be totally dependent and helpless? Or what do you suggest? You look and you only see costs. It's not as black and white as you suggest.

Re:

[walt-sjc]

The gov gave the $1 coin a very crappy introduction. They SHOULD have said that all $1 bills will be pulled from circulation in 5 or 10 years. I have only seen the modern $1 coin in circulation ONCE - and it was because some individual gave one to me. I have never been to a business or used a machine gave them out in change.

Re:

[eggoeater]

How about patterns of holes in the bills?

So could you use the chads as coins?
Also, the bills that came out of the Treasury with hanging chads would be worth more as a collectors' item.

Re:Money Reader

[Anonymous Coward]

And now we hit upon the Great Slashdot Self-Absorption.

Because you don't use cash any longer, no one does.

This premise can be expanded by stating that if anyone still does do the thing you don't do (or, conversely, doesn't do the thing you do) they are morons.

To ward off the sample size critics you could state that no one you know uses cash either.

Re:

[Gospodin]

Not at all - he's simply saying that because one can get by pretty easily these days without using cash at all, then changing our entire system of money seems a bit extreme. I admit I find this a pretty compelling argument.

Re:Money Reader

[Albanach]

You never use cash? Not for getting a haircut? Buying a newspaper? Buying a coffee? Buying a bus ticket? How about buying a beer in a bar - do you pass your card to be swiped for each drink you purchase?

There are still a whole host of low value transactions where cash is the most appropriate way to pay. Perhaps you have changed your lifestyle to fit your no cash utopia, but to suggest that others do likewise because they had the misfortune to be born blind or to have lost their eyesight is plain wrong.

The US is the onlycountry on earth with notes that are indistinguishable from one another for the blind. Here's a hint, it's not because the rest of the world is waiting to catch up to the United States...

Re:Money Reader

[Gospodin]

I never said that I never use cash; I said (actually, OP said) that it was possible to use no (or very little) cash. All the examples you gave are quite easy to pay for with a debit card. (The newspaper is the most problematic one, although bookstores and convenience stores sell them and take debit cards. And I should note that you aren't buying newspapers from street corners if you're blind.)

So here's the deal. On one hand, we can spend huge amounts of money to change our money system. This means changing money readers in vending machines, retraining sales clerks, changing our printing systems, dealing with fraud during the changeover, etc., etc. It's simply a huge project. On the other hand, we could ask the blind, who have been dealing with this without the benefit of ubiquitous debit cards ever since paper money has been around, to keep dealing with it in an environment more convenient for them than ever before. Maybe I'm hardhearted, but this seems like a really simple choice. We shouldn't have to make huge changes to accommodate every handicap people have.

Re:

[joto]

Look, nobody is asking you to "make huge changes to accomodate every handicap people have". What is suggested is something that will benefit everyone. If a blind man can't feel the difference between different coins and bills in his wallet, neither can you. And if a blind man can feel the difference, so can you. No longer will you have to fiddle in bad light, trying to determine which is which. All you have to do is put your hand in your wallet, and you will immediately feel which coins/bills you have there

Re:

[joto]

Such a card-only lifestyle would be unthinkable in europe. Not because of lack of vending-points(you can pay practically everywhere with your creditcard), but because of the lack of privacy: Your card-issuing organization has a profile of your buying-habbits.

Huh?

What the fuck do you mean? Where did you get the idea that every single european was a rabid privacy-nut trying to out-nut even EFF?

There are plenty of people I know that use this card-only lifestyle. It's convenient to not have to carry a wal

Re:

[daeg]

Tell that to the working class poor who don't make enough money to bother with banks, or to the inner city poor who have to pay rent with cash or those living out of week-stay live-in motels.

Want to see something sad? Next time gas prices are near $3/gallon, go inside a convenience store. Don't pick a nice one... pick one that you normally wouldn't go to. Now watch the stream of people file in and pull a single $5 out of their wallet and pre-pay for their gasoline. None of those people have a debit card.

Bli

Re:Money Reader

[thrillseeker]

Want to see something sad? Next time gas prices are near $3/gallon, go inside a convenience store. Don't pick a nice one.

When I visit just such a convenience store once a week to buy gas, and have to pay cash about every other time because the damn pump card reader is out-of-order, I see just such people walking in and cashing government checks - and then buying 2 cartons of cigarettes and $100 of lottery tickets. My sympathy meter is pretty much broken.

Re:Money Reader

[Archangel Michael]

What I want to know is, where is this gas station, where blind people are lining up to pay $5 in cash to get gas for their car? I don't want to be ANYWHERE near where blind people are driving!!!!

Re:

[kidgenius]

Tell that to the working class poor who don't make enough money to bother with banks

Two words....Credit Union. Their goal is to serve the underserved. The exact people that you are referncing and the banks don't want.

Re:

[jimstapleton]

My mom, who is blind, has been trying to get one.

They are around $200, and she does not have the money for that.

Re:

[Yahweh Doesn't Exist]

no but the wheelchair ramps that do the actual allowing access are.

get it?

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Money Reader

[pnewhook]

Blind people don't really need free wheelchairs...

Re:

[clickety6]

For the last three months, I have had even less access to my money than a blind person (who knows his PIN) would have. I've been using my bank card on all purchases, something a blind person is just as capable of doing.

How does a blind person know that the amount they are being told they are paying actually matches what they are paying? The terminals don't have a display a blind person can "read" or a voiced amount, so they could still be ripped of by unscrupulous people.

Re:

[lazyl]

Changing paper money does nothing to resolve this.

What are you talking about? Ofcourse it does. With paper money a blind person knows exactly how much he's paying, and if the bills had raised text (like the rest of the world) he'd know exactly how much change he's getting back. He might be charged more then the price on the tag but at least he knows how much it is so he can refuse if he knows it's wrong. With a debit reader he has now idea how much he's being charged; the clerk can say $10 but type in $

Re:

[1u3hr]

The summary suggests that an appeal might be on its way, and I imagine the ruling will be shot down. To make any changes to currency would not only require completely recirculating the billions of papers out there, but it would probably require drastic changes to the printing process. Different shapes, sizes, or including braille print sound like expensive alterations.

Any transition would not be overnight. It'd basically just involve new bills, no mass callback. The mint's printing methods are changing a

Re:Money Reader

[dschuetz]

To make any changes to currency would not only require completely recirculating the billions of papers out there, but it would probably require drastic changes to the printing process. Different shapes, sizes, or including braille print sound like expensive alterations.

I doubt the courts would require all currency to be recalled, especially since much currency has only an 18-month lifespan. And since we're redesigning the larger bills (5 through 100) every 7 years or so, we've already committed to spending a certain amount of money on redesign. Incorporating some raised devices (as on Canada's currency) would be a trivial addition to the next round of redesigns.

Changing the size of currency would obviously cost a lot more, but the Treasury is constantly looking at new printing technology, and so that could also be spread out as they replace equipment. Nobody said this had to happen overnight. And, oh, we've done this before -- in the 1920's we changed from a large format currency to the current small-sized notes. And before anyone brings up vending machine and ATM manufacturers' complaints, differing note sizes hasn't hurt anyone in Europe (where ATMs regularly dispense bills in four or more denominations, each a different size).

And this might finally be what lets Congress stand up to lobbyists and kill the dollar bill. Not only are we out of step with the rest of the world on blind access to currency, we're just about the only major country stubborn enough to still use currency for our primary currency measure -- everyone else, Pounds, Euro, Canadian Dollar, Australian Dollar, have coins for 1 and 2 unit, and sometimes even 5 unit, denominations. I read recently that eliminating the dollar bill would save half a billion (BILLION) dollars a year, and that was a 1995 study, so it's probably even higher. But lobbyists (primarily for the unions that produce the paper) have consistently stopped cold any attempt to switch to coins only.

Anyway, I think the Judge is right and, though this wouldn't be free, it wouldn't be an undue burden.

Re:Money Reader

[geoffspear]

Here [nap.edu] is a page describing the accessibility features of all of the world's currencies as of 1995. Note that the US is the only country on the list that didn't have a single one of the 4 features they look at, and Brazil was very rare in using just bill color (which is obviously useless to people who are completely blind) to distinguish bills. China's currency includes a tactile recognition symbol, and India's uses a different size bill for some denominations.

Besides, a more fair comparison would be not to similar-sized countries, but to other industrialized democracies. But, for the record, almost every country in Africa has (or had, in 1995) more accessible currency than the US.

Re:Money Reader

[BenjyD]

Doesn't it make sense to have easily distinguishable notes anyway, blind or not? Finding the correct note in your wallet is much slower with dollars than Euros or pounds.

Re:Money Reader

[91degrees]

but the £5 note is their only note that will comfortably fit in my standard-sized wallet.

Wallets are designed to hold money. Not the other way round. Mine holds a wad of £50 notes quite easily.

Re:Money Reader

[Gibsnag]

I wish I could verify that with my wallet.... :(

Re:Money Reader

[afidel]

That's why you use Crane's Crest Fluorescent White paper as your stock. It's made by the same people that make the paper used by the US Mint using a similar process. It doesn't contain the security strip, watermark, colored threads, etc of a real bill but it will pass the feel and iodine pen tests used by most cashiers =)

What about the nation's forgers?

[Anonymous Coward]

US currency is the easiest to forge in the world. You take a $1 bill, wash it clean and reprint it with a $100 bill. This will really increase the costs to forgers, and they should sue the treasury for loss of earnings.

About time too !

[OneSmartFellow]

The bills in the US are difficult to distinguish under conditions other than blindness, it's about time we caught up with the rest of the world. We make coins different shapes, sizes and textures, why not bills.

I can't explain it...

[shaneh0]

...But my great grandfather, who went blind at 60 to Glaucoma, was able to identify a denomination with 100% accuracy. It was a dinner-party trick that always delighted the crowd. He lived until 90 and, while I'm not sure if this was an acquired skill, as long as I knew him (the last 10 years of his life), he was never wrong. So there must be SOMETHING to it. I always speculated that it could've been that he could actually feel the boundries of ink in the paper, or something like that. I once thought that h

FINALLY

[Bob of Dole]

I can see quite well with glasses, and this very thing has annoyed me plenty of times. Why the hell are all our bills the same size, shape, and color?
Make them more distinct, and you'll speed up all cash transactions.
If nothing else the fast food industry will thank you :)

Re:FINALLY

[the_unknown_soldier]

In Australia notes are all different colors (red, green, blue, pink etcetc) to make it patently obvious which note is which. It might not help blind people, but it prevents silly mistakes and makes money easily identifiable!

For blind people they are slightly different lengths, which doesn't really effect non blind people.

Re:FINALLY

[Oscar_Wilde]

In Australia notes are all different colors (red, green, blue, pink etcetc) to make it patently obvious which note is which. It might not help blind people, but it prevents silly mistakes and makes money easily identifiable!
 
The polymer that Australian Bank Notes are made from also has raised areas to help the blind and the clear windows are also different shapes with a smoother texture. Not just handy for blind people; they're also good anti counterfeiting measures.

The Wikipedia article on the Australian Dollar [wikipedia.org] has a nice chart of the Polymer Series [wikipedia.org]. Having lived in Germany (post Euro), Australia and the U.S.A. I can honestly say that Australian banknote technology is something that the U.S.A. and many other countries really should look into licensing.

Re:FINALLY

[srmalloy]

One of the things that has prevented the adoption of many of the newer innovations in currency design for US paper currency is the 'crumple test', where a bill is rolled tightly, then inserted into a cylinder and crushed with a ramrod, then removed, rolled the other way, and crushed again. This process is repeated a total of 16 times; the note must remain recognizable. Prospective currency changes also go through a number of other durability tests -- being washed with eight cotton towels, being soaked in a variety of chemicals (such as bleach, sulfuric acid, and gasoline), 'rub tests' with a two-pound weight with a pad after bills are soaked in the chemicals, and others. So far, only relatively minor innovations, like the color-changing ink, have survived the durability tests -- for example, image holograms, IIRC, fail the crumple test badly.

Re:

[LocoMan]

Venezuelan money does too (though not sure for how long it has had it). The denomination number is raised, as is the face and other features to help blind people distinguish them, and it really helps... I've seen blind people recognize the bills as fast as non blind by rubbing their thumb on the bills as they receive them.

The coins also have different ridges on the sides for that (the 50Bs. coin has ridges, the 100 one has a smooth edge, and the 500 one has alternating ridged and smooth areas).

Re:FINALLY

[KokorHekkus]

And if you add some kind of relief on the bills as well then you will most likely cut down on counterfeit bills as well. Swedish bills have the numbers printed with reliefs and it's very easy just to run your finger over them to make a preliminary check if the bill is real.

Re:

[Jtheletter]

Why the hell are all our bills the same size, shape, and color?

Well, this may not be the actual truth, but I seem to recall that this is what I learned in grade school. When the US government finally standardized the monetary system they made a conscious decision to make all bills the same size and color to prevent them from being easily recognizable from a distance as a security measure. The idea was if someone pulls out a wad of bright orange $100 bills, as opposed to blue $1s then a mugger could spy th

Didn't anyone think of RFID ?!?!

[tezza]

Surely RFID tags in each note are the anwser??

Then blind people can carry around a conveniently sized RFID reader.

Just swipe past the reader and it'll tell you how much money is in your wallet. Or is that the amount in the next person's wallet? Ok, forget it.

Re:

[MojoRilla]

Actually, there are already hand held optical bill readers for the blind. [sforh.com]

Re:

[SerpentMage]

This is why sometimes countries get behind in technology. Instead of embracing the idea and seeing it as a challenge, they say, "nope no can do, too expensive, [insert excuse here]."

The Euro was introduced relatively quickly, and many other countries switched currencies without problems. In fact many countries regularly switch currencies without problems.

When you are required to change the change can be painful, but often it is for the better.

Or how about a conspiracy theory twist. MAYBE the Treasury does n

Re:

[iamblades]

The US Mint is kind of traditionalist, and value stability and trust very highly. That and people are just comfortable with the good old fashioned greenback. It's probably mostly aesthetic and irrational, but there is something about american currency that feels reassuring compared to foriegn currency, regardless of how many security features and hideous color schemes they have. You heard all the controversy about the new $10 and $20 bills when they were introduced right? The color scheme on those is mild c

Why appeal?

[wizrd_nml]

Why is the Treasury Department appealing this ruling? They should embrace it and start solving the problem.

Who exactly is harmed with this decision? I don't even see why it went to court in the first place.

It's expensive

[BadAnalogyGuy]

The cost to retool the machinery is significant. I don't know where they'd be able to scrape together that sort of cash.

Re:It's expensive

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, it's not as if they have a license to print money or anything. Oh, wait...

Re:It's expensive

[Fred_A]

The USA could outsource it's money production to a cheaper country, or a country already set up to print secure currency.

Seconded. And while they're at it they could switch to the Euro which already comes in several sizes, colours and with blind friendly features. It would make life easier for tourists and it's not like the dollar is worth anything much anyway... ;)

Re:Why appeal?

[OfficialReverendStev]

I have mod points but had to reply. *sigh* IUTWBEP (I Used To Work for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing) There are several reasons why the Treasury Department would resist this change: 1. There has just been a recent currency redesign. Each one usually takes ~10 years from start to finish. 2. The time it takes has little to do with "retooling" the machines. In fact, during the last changeover there was no gap in production. That is, the old 20's were printed right up until the time the new ones started. The reason? The new currency is printed on new machines. 3. Instead the time is taken by the actual design and preparation process. It takes years to actually get a design that everybody involved (more than you think) will accept. There are always minute details that get changed or massaged until all of the needs and wants are satisfied. Many special groups (in this case, for the blind) will be called in to consult. That frightens federal workers because a. most federal employees don't really care for contractors, despite what they tell you and b. it always takes longer when a consultant is involved, in the federal government or not. 4. The cost of changing the currency is astronomical. It's figured into the budget (my uncle is the chief of budget there... I didn't work for him though, no nepotism) over the course of that ~10 years. To mandate a change in the middle of a cycle will cause serious budget issues. 5. The vending machine industry will vehemently protest because every machine that accepts a bill will need to be changed. Sure, you could propose that we keep the $1 bill the same so that the vast majority of machines won't have to be updated and you're probably right. Unfortunately the vending machine companies will still protest. 6. Assuming this does get passed it will still take years to have it implemented, especially without specific instructions as to how to proceed. 7. If the project is rushed by court order or Treasury mandate the job will not be done well, or will blow the roof off of the budget. Oh yeah, by the way, BEP is NOT funded by Congress. The Federal Reserve buys the currency from them. Therefore, if the budget skyrockets Congress can't just step in and add more cash, unless there's... well an act of Congress. And quit it with the "they can just print more money" lines. Nobody who works for Treasury has ever though that was funny or clever. 8. If it's ordered to be done quickly and there is no budget increase it will be done poorly. Keep in mind that BEP employees, especially those working the presses are some of the finest in their field in the world. However, as anybody in IT will know, it doesn't matter how good you are at your job; if you're rushed and not properly-funded to meet the rush the job suffers. That's what I came up with off the top of my head. There are probably more problems. Maybe this can be worked into the next redesign but that should be a few years underway already. It's hard to change gears in the middle of a long-term project. Don't get me wrong though, I'm all for accessability. I think that it should be done, but now is not the time.

Re:

[clickety6]

Euro notes of different sizes and European vending machine handle them OK. make your $100 dollar bill the same size ass your current $1 and make all the rest somewhat smaller and you'll be fine...

Fold your $!

[Fecal Troll Matter]

I always did wonder how, in the U.S., blind people dealt with money. I ended up meeting a friend of my father's who was blind, so I asked him. He told me that he has someone (someone who can see, obviously) fold his money a certain way -- singles get folded in half, 5's got folded into an L-shape, 10's got folded another way and so on so that he always knew what denomination of money he was taking out of his wallet.

Accessibility is good for everybody

[MichaelSmith]

Ramps built into buildings for wheelchairs make it easier to get heavy gear in and out. Braile on ATM keyboards and lift buttons make it easier to distinguish between keys. Audio-tactile devices on pedestrian crossings provide a better UI for people regardless of whether they can see or not.

Trust me. US currency will be better for everybody if it accomodates blind people.

Re:

[bmajik]

But, it has a cost. I don't know how often you've tried to use cash-accepting vending machines in the US, but even with our uniform sized notes, my entire life I've come to expect that there is a 5-20% failure rate on a given machine accepting a given note. Imagine my total surprise when i found that machines in Germany had no problem accepting the different sized Euro notes without trouble.

Significant retooling will be required by all commercial entities in the US that deal with automated cash handling m

This is an easy thing to solve...

[tgd]

Scratch and sniff.

Make each bill smell like something else. Make a five smell like coffee, since thats what a coffee at starbucks costs. Ten smells like pizza. Twenty smells like chinese food, and a hundred smells like fine leather.

The one doesn't smell like a damn thing, since you can't do much with it anyway.

Re:

[Richard_at_work]

Already being done - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6167868. stm [bbc.co.uk]

Re:This is an easy thing to solve...

[Bob of Dole]

Yeah, that's always annoyed me.
Treasury Accountant: Hey! If we use 1$ coins instead of 1$ bills, we'll save X million dollars a day!
Treasury President: Brilliant idea, let's get on making some new 1$ coins right away. ... time passes...
Treasury Accountant: Well, no one is using the 1$ coins.
Treasury President: But we spent X billion dollars on marketing them! Damn, I guess 1$ coins just won't work.
Repeat every decade or so.

If you want people to stop using 1$ bills, STOP PRINTING THEM.

Re:

[Znork]

"If you want people to stop using 1$ bills, STOP PRINTING THEM."

You're assuming it's the treasury that's actually printing the $1 bills.

Seriously tho, it's been done lots of times in a lot of countries; you not only stop printing them, you set a deadline for validity. After that, shops wont take them and you have, like, a year or something during which banks will trade them in. Then you have several years when it's possible to trade them in at the treasury, or something. After that, it's the collectors mark

Re:

[mark-t]

They tried to do that in the US

No they didn't. the US only introduced the coin, but they never stopped printing the $1 bill.

Canada has actually had a $1 coin for a _VERY_ long time, but it was not until they introduced a $1 coin that was intended to completely replace the bill that its usage actually started increasing. The mint reduced circulation of $1 bills, ultimately ceasing printing them completely, and bills that found their way to a bank were to be turned over to the mint and replaced with

I don't understand what the problem is

[JumperCable]

About 8 years ago I working in a building that had a blind man (none of this legally/partially blind bs) running the convience stand. He showed me one day how he determined the value of the currency handed to him. He felt the ridges on the corners of the bills. He could also feel the patterns of the faces.

Pull out an old style $1 from your wallet. This the type of bill he was working with at the time. The black ink is slightly raised. The newer bills have slightly raised black ink too with different patterns. Run your finger nail across them to feel the ridges.

ATMs

[tttonyyy]

Come to think about it, ATMs must be nigh on impossible to use too.

Inserting the card and entering a PIN sounds doable blind - but then you're presented with screens to navigate via soft keys (and it's different between ATMs). No chance.

Funny the things us sighted people take for granted.

Re:

[mgblst]

Finding a hot chick must be pretty hard as well. I mean, I guess you feel her to make sure she doesn't have any moles or a moustache, but how can you feel pretty? Can't be done.

Finally take the $1 bill

[rolfwind]

and turn it into a coin. Not this half-assed production of a few coins and predominantly bills. Get it over with and make it purely coins. It'll make vending machines more convenient. Coins are easily distinguishable.

On mony, just have an imprinted (raised) mark whereever the denomination number is printed. It doesn't have to be elaborate - just dots like braile.

I'm surprised this didn't come sooner with the Americans with disabilities act, or some such.

Re:

[rolfwind]

I forgot to add, also raised the portrait in the middle through imprinting and make it slightly 3d. This will help if the dots get worn or screwed with.

Re:Finally take the $1 bill

[iamdrscience]

If we get rid of the dollar bill, what are people supposed to use at strip bars? A five is a little bit much for most people and I can't imagine having underwear full of coins is helpful when dancing. Please people, think of the strippers.

Re:Stupid idea alert

[rolfwind]

That's funny - the EU countries had no problem changing their vending machines around once the Euro came. They didn't even change the machines, the money accepting mechanism is modular (woah!).

Keeping the $1 is costing money for taxpayers. If it becomes standard, vending machines will start accepting it fast. The government has the power in this case of the chicken or the egg.

Never mind the blind!

[Tx]

On a trip to the states a while back, in a dimly lit strip club, I accidentally gave several $20 bills to a stripper instead of $1s, got a bit more than I bargained for. Wouldn't say it was a waste exactly, but you can't claim that shit back on expenses!

Poor decision by a bad judge

[will_die]

This is just a really poor decision that should be blocked by the next court up the chain. Reading the decision the judge goes into how bad it is that the bill are all the same and how it places a hardship, which it does. However devices are available which allow around which allow the money to meet the law. The judge should of told the people sueing that they should go take it up with thier congressmen; instead of doing this stupid soapbox speech.

Some other decision by him:
Private unions cannot expell members who spread "falsehood and misrepresentation" because that breaks the members freedom of speech.
Has through out a few cases for companies giving expensive gifts to government officials.
In various court cases has just ignored major case points on various parties and ruled based on older laws that had been superceded.

Re:Poor decision by a bad judge

[oberondarksoul]

Here in the UK, all our banknotes are different sizes and colours, and have a unique symbol on them as well (the £5 note has a blue square, the £10 a brown diamond, and so on). Frankly, as you're rifling through your wallet trying to find the right note, these distinguishing features are a godsend; when I was in the USA on holiday, it was much more time-consuming, although having said that the uniquely-blue $20 note helped a lot.

Having easily-discernable banknotes will save everyone time, and will help the partially-sighted or blind a great deal. Why should they need to buy a device when it can be done by the money printers to everyone's benefit?

Never. Never. Never. It's sooo un-American.

[Ihlosi]

Ain't going to happen. Europe does it (as well as integrating a whole bunch of additional anti-counterfeit measures), so it must be un-American. Never mind the blind, God (with a capital G) must hate them or they wouldn't be blind, right ? Also, it could help the terrorists. Dollar notes are just fine the way they are.

old symbology

[slashrogue]

What I want to know is, will we finally be able to ditch the Illuminati pyramid and eye and get rid of the crazy Latin phrases?

Maybe something more American, like "Either you're with us or you're against us." ha.

Re:

[Svippy]

Exactly what they should do. Most currencies today are done like that, stacking currency is only done in the same bill, so you can tell the difference. Hence most other currencies uses different colours for each note.

The US is behind.

Re:Don't do what china does

[jez9999]

blind people are completely incapable of judging size anyway as it has no meaning to them; theirs is a world without size, colour, distance or space.

I can agree with you on colour, but without size, distance or space? I don't think so; they'd have trouble doing anything at all if they couldn't perceive those. Check out this guy [youtube.com].

Re:Credit cards

[Silver Sloth]

So you want to use your credit card

• In a taxi
• to pay for a newspaper costing less than a dollar
• For that round of drinks in a bar (well, OK, maybe that one)
• To give a minor donation to a charity you approve of

I run nearly cashless, but I still can't do without it. And, as an example of the problems with US currency, I once, on a business trip to the states, tipped a waiter $100. Fortunately he took pity on this rather tipsy foriegner and pointed out my mistake.
Oh, and by the way, if you come to my home poker game, bring cash!

Re:

[Draelen]

Why sure, make all your money electronic, where the only proof of your hard earned money is just digits on a computer somewhere, every single little transaction you make logged and tracked, where the bank can freeze it for little reason, soon a profile of ALL your spending habits is out in the open for all agencies to see. What a great idea!

Re:Credit cards

[rubycodez]

and for more improvement, we could print the value of the card on the outside of the card. and have a bunch of cards in varying amounts of money so if you lose one you don't lose all your money. we could make them green to distinguish them from other cards. maybe put some pictures of dead presidents on them.

Re:Limited options

[adnonsense]

At the beginning of 2002 vast swathes of Western Europe managed to change not just the size and shape of their notes but introduced a completely new currency at the same time. In Germany (and possibly other places) they even managed to fix it so that ATMs gave out Deutschmark right up until midnight on Dec. 31, 2001 and as soon as 2002 rolled over, pumped out shiny new Euro notes.

Other countries such as the UK regularly replace their currency designs, usually every 10 - 15 years or so.

If the US did the same, it would benefit maybe not just blind people but keep e.g. the North Korean counterfeiters on their toes.

Re:

[ledow]

That's obviously why they won't tell them WHAT to do, just to do it. And there isn't even a need to change the reader, most probably. A simple embossing of a small area of the bill will be sufficient, I should think. There wouldn't be any need for any machinery changes to handle a different embossing or texture - it wouldn't need to be used for "verification" of the bill in an electronic device, just so that a blind human can tell the difference between them (the issue of whether blind people can spot a

Re:

[Rob T Firefly]

Also, speaking as a business owner, changing the bill's size would cost me time and money. No thanks!

You're one of those business owners who counts the paper clips and keeps the employee bathroom stocked with the cheap toilet paper, aren't you?

Speaking as a business owner, I'm very much in favor of anything that makes it easier for more people to give me their money, and I also just like being gracious and accessible to as many people as possible. Any decent business owner knows that some things are worth

Re:

[Bacon Bits]

The Fed determines how much money is in circulation and places orders for paper money with the Bureau of Engraving & Printing, which is part of the Treasury Dept. (as is the US Mint which produces the nation's coins). The Treasury Department determines what the money looks like, because the Treasury Department is responsible for the security of the dollar.

The US Mint and Bureau of E&P produce money, and the Fed is their only customer.

Re:

[nuxx]

It's likely because a standard keypad / face is used for ATMs, and that is used on both walk-up and drive-up machines.

Re:

[YrWrstNtmr]

Can someone please tell me why the keys on drive through instant tellers have braille on them?

You're blind. You get a taxi to the store, stopping at the ATM on the way. Do you want to give the cab driver your card and PIN?

Re:

[Sinistar2k]

There's a difference between making money accessible and mandating a store carry a robust big and tall selection. The money is created, distributed, and managed by the federal government. As such, it carries certain restrictions and regulations that must apply to the entire nation or to anyone outside of this nation who converts it between currencies. Wal-Mart is a corporation and, as such, chooses its product selection to best result in profitability. The government does not directly regulate product s

No -- minority rights have ALWAYS been our way.

[Valdrax]

Somewhere along the line our nation went from a Republic to an odd politically correct hybrid of socialism where the rights of the few outweigh the rights of the many. 1% of the population can now dictate and control 99% of the population. That simply isn't right. [...] I'll tell you one thing; this kind of stuff sure as hell isn't what the founding fathers had in mind when they founded the nation, that's for sure.

Strange. Where in reading the Constitution and the early works of the founding fathers d