Australian banknotes have been cited in regard to a US court case that might lead to American printed currency being redesigned
“The US is rather unique in that it is one of very few industrialised nations that has resisted including shape, size, texture, or meaningful colour contrast in its bank notes,” said Melanie Brunson, Executive Director of the American Council of the Blind (ACB), which filed a lawsuit against the US Treasury Department.
The Treasury Department discriminates because it has failed to design and issue paper currency that is readily distinguishable by people who are blind, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. By a 2-1 vote, the court upheld a ruling by US District Judge James Robertson in the lawsuit.
The appeals court rejected the Treasury Department’s arguments that making currency accessible would impose an undue burden on the government, and sent the case back to Robertson to address the group’s request for relief.
Mitch Pomerantz, President of the ACB, stated: “This is a tremendous victory for the ACB and for every blind and visually impaired person living in the United States today and in the future. We hope that the Treasury Department will now sit down with us to come up with a mutually satisfactory way of making our currency accessible.”
Melanie Brunson, Executive Director of ACB, added, “There are over 180 nations that have some sort of accessibility built in to their paper currency. Currencies used by countries such as Canada, Australia, Japan, England, and even the euro have accessibility features. The US is rather unique in that it is one of very few industrialised nations that has resisted including shape, size, texture, or meaningful colour contrast in its bank notes.”
In related developments, in March, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
announced (PDF file) two models of contact image sensors (CIS) for the Japanese and overseas markets.
“Used chiefly to enable banking machines to read banknotes, these products are the first in the world to detect special luminous ink that reacts only to ultraviolet (UV) light. Sales will begin from the end of May 2008,” Mitsubishi Electric said.
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