Money Discriminates Against The Blind

Does paper money discriminate against the blind and visually impaired? Common sense would suggest as much. Then does that mean that the U.S. will have to change its paper currency in order to end that discrimination?

Yes, according to the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia.

The court's decision was handed down in a case called American Council for the Blind et al v. Henry M. Paulson Jr., Secretary of the Treasury . The U.S. Mint which prints the nation's currency is part of the Treasury Department.

Unless the Treasury Department is able to get the Supreme Court to overturn the decision, it looks like U.S. currency is going to have to be redesigned with raised, tactile features or other elements so the blind can tell the difference between denominations.

The appeals court didn't buy the Bush Administration's arguments that changing the currency would be too expensive and that the blind and visually impaired have other options, like technology that can read paper money.

So it looks like our money is going to change. Maybe the Mint can get the Fed to change monetary policy while we are at it. I hope they don't go to different size bills. I always hate that when traveling. Also, look for this to be the death knell for the dollar bill, which they have been looking to take out of circulation for years.

UPDATE 5/21/2008 [lawhawk]:
Well, Patterico notes that the National Federation of the Blind has come out against the decision:

The National Federation of the Blind issued a press release critical of the district court decision that was upheld yesterday. Overlawyered quoted the president of the organization saying: “Essentially, the United States Treasury has been ordered by the courts to come up with a solution for a nonexistent problem.”

The decision would also impose direct and indirect costs on businesses that would be forced to change vending machines and ATMs around the country to dispense and handle currency of different sizes. Such costs would be in the billions of dollars (regardless of how they look).