Federal Appeals Court Rules U.S. Money Should Accommodate Blind, Sight-Impaired

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A federal Appeals Court has ruled that U.S. paper money must be redesigned to help sight-impaired people distinguish among each denomination. In a 2-1 ruling, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals rejected Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's contention that changing the bills to differentiate the denominations would be too expensive.

The ruling upholds a decision by a lower court in 2006 and could force the U.S. Treasury Department to redesign its money. The 2006 ruling rendered by U.S. District Judge James Robertson in Washington stated that the same-size paper currency violates the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits discrimination based on disability.

The American Council for the Blind sued for such changes but the Treasury Department has been fighting the case for about six years. Suggested changes range from making bills of different sizes to printing them with raised markings.

The Appeals Court ruling forces the department to address what the court called a discriminatory problem. Eric Bridges, director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs at the American Council of the Blind, the Washington-based advocacy group that brought the suit, said his group isn't specifying how bills should be differentiated, just that blind and visually impaired people need them to be.