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A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled that American paper money discriminates against the blind; Jos Eijsermans explains to anchor Lisa Mullins how many other countries’ currencies have been adapted to help the visually impaired.
(How does the US dollar rate alongside other bank notes when it comes to helping or hindering the blind?) I agree that something should be done: bank notes are all the same shape, color, and feel and to someone who is visually impaired it would be a major problem. The US dollar has improved against forgery but this is still missing. (Who does it better?) Who doesn’t do it better? Roughly 60-plus countries do it better. (Your list starts off with Albania, Cuba, Croatia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Venezuela. What do they do that makes it more user friendly for the blind?) There are little signals: triangles, dots, circles, used in a certain way that represent certain denominations. So it’s a strongly raised print. (Anything in brail?) Yes, something like that in Cuba and Lebanon. (What else can help?) The only alternative is a microchip which can tell someone, but we’re far away from that.