Money Money Money

Earlier in May, the U.S. Court of Appeals declared that by keeping dollars the same size and feel, the U.S. Treasury Department is actually violating the law. How? Our currency design does not provide any mechanism by which blind and/or visually impaired people can distinguish between values. The court upheld a 2006 district court ruling that could end up forcing the U.S. to redesign its money.

Since 2004, the U.S. government has made several big design changes to paper money. In fact, just this past March, the new $5 bill was introduced to “help foil counterfeiters [because it] includes two new watermarks and an enhanced security thread that will help businesses and consumers validate the new bills,” says the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The biggest difference for the new $5 bill is the light purple in the middle, small “05”s that appear on both sides in the background, and a giant purple “5” on the back.

The government has justifiably been a large proponent of redesigning our bills over the past years in order to make our currency safer, smarter, and more secure. But what about making it safer for all of our citizens to use easily? We have moved beyond our bills being all green and carrying just the traditional text. At what point is it appropriate to consider changes such as making bills different sizes or including raised marks on parts of the bills?

Many other currencies have already addressed this issue. For example, the euro features large, raised numerals and different values have different note sizes. England has used size to correspond to values of pound notes, and Japan is beginning to incorporate tactile elements into new designs for the yen. Interestingly, Canadian bank notes that were issued in 2001 have done a lot to help blind and senior citizens. Bills are designed with distinct colors, large numerals in high contrast, and even raised dots that correspond to specific dollar amounts.

A reasonable concern with using Braille on paper money is that many have not had the opportunity to learn it, and some cannot distinguish the dots in the standard Braille spacing. Canada has addressed the issue of accessibility by using a different system than Braille. Furthermore, the bills are compatible with a free hand-held electronic bank note reader that can tell you the value of the bill in different languages. But I still wonder, what will prevent these raised bumps from rubbing out quickly?

Hopefully, the Treasury Department will begin research and analysis to be able to make improvements to make the design of our paper currency so that it is as functional as possible for all in the upcoming years.

Additional sources:
NPR article: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90916767
CNNmoney.com article: http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/20/news/money_blind/index.htm?eref=rss_topstories
U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing: http://www.moneyfactory.gov/
Color and Design Blog: http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/09/21/the-new-colors-of-us-money/
“It’s Our Money Too!”: http://www.ourmoneytoo.org/solutions.php