The Blinded Veterans Association Supports Tactile Currency
In 2006, the members of the Blinded Veterans Association voted to support adding a tactile feature to United States paper currency.
WHEREAS, currency is used by virtually everyone in everyday life including blind and visually-impaired persons, AND
WHEREAS, the currency of the United States is, at the present time, impossible to identify without vision or electric device, AND
WHEREAS, most blind and visually impaired persons are therefore required to rely upon others to determine denominations of such currency, AND
WHEREAS, this constitutes a serious impediment to independence in everyday living, AND
WHEREAS, electronic means of bill identification will always have more potential for fallibility than purely tactile means, AND
WHEREAS, readily identifiable currency is consistent with the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act, AND
WHEREAS, a suitable method of visual identification has been introduced for visually-impaired persons, AND
WHEREAS, no tactile means of identifying currency has yet been developed or introduced; THEREFORE BE IT
RESOLVED, that the Blinded Veterans Association, in convention assembled in Buffalo, NY on this 19th day of August, 2006, strongly supports efforts to make
currency of the United States tactually identifiable within a reasonable period of time.
AprpmThu, 19 Apr 2007 20:59:33 +0000c08 11, 2007 at 8:59 pm
As a person with sight, I still support using some identifying mechanism for the visually impaired. This could be as simple as altering the size of the various denominations (as we already do with coins) or putting raised marks on the bills. As it stands, we lag behind the vast majority of countries by making our bills indistinguishable for the visually impaired.