Blind eye


I did not know much about how governments around the world help visually impaired individuals in society to determine which bill or coin they have in hand. Our bills are all the same size, shape, and weight, regardless of value. As a result, it is not possible for blind people to differentiate between the values of each dollar independently by touch alone. After a lot of research online, I have found that even though there are many ways for blind people to manage their money such as folding techniques and specialized apps, the basic problem remains: U.S. currency is indistinguishable by physical methods of touch and sensation.  Therefore, I think that the United States is discriminatory against blind people in regards to currency. On a more positive note, I learned that there are many countries around the world that have a currency that is accessible for the visually impaired, such as Australia, India, Canada, and Japan. For example, in Australia and India, bills of different values are made in different sizes and colors for blind people. In addition, I learned that in Canada, they have bills where the face side of a bill has raised dots in the top right corner, which I thought was a very unique idea since blind people use the Braille system to read and write. Moreover, I found out that the Japanese yen also features tactile marks for the blind. Therefore, the United States is the only major country that I could find that has all bills with the same size and color (predominantly green) for all values of money. I found out the US has been slow to make changes to its bills since a 2008 court ruling that demanded accessible currency for all Americans which I thought was very unfair to blind people. However, the federal government is now offering a free currency reader for visually impaired Americans. Therefore, even though blind people are a minority (10% of the population), they still need people to advocate for them. We need to make society more aware of the fact that our currency has a long way to go in order to be more accessible to the visually impaired.

WORKS CITED
Ross, Tom. How Blind People Identify Paper Money. November 30/15 DATE OF ACCESS 17, February 2010 edition.englishclub.com/podcasts/interesting-facts/accessible-currency/.

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