How do the blind know what denominations of money they possess?5

5 Comments

1. eddie01 says:

   January 21, 2011 at 12:57 AM

   I dont know but your suggestion is very smart

   Reply
2. Drew says:

   January 21, 2011 at 1:10 AM

   That is actually a big problem for the blind. Coins they can handle, but not bills.

   There is a grass-roots effort by the blind to get the government to issue all bills in different sizes so they can tell them apart. This would, of course, cost TONS of money and every single vending machine and automatic cashier machine would need to be tossed out and replaced with redesigned machines to accept the new bills.

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3. Jay Moore says:

   January 21, 2011 at 1:25 AM

   A friend of mine is blind…and he’s got a neat trick that he said he’s been doing for years…and it was also in that Ben Affleck movie….based on some comic or something…

   Anyway…he has a very trusting person…sometimes it’s a bank employee…sometimes a family member or trusted friend fold the various bills in different ways…1′s were folded in half, 5′s were folded in half 90 degrees opposite…10′s were diagonal and so forth. He has to very carefully place things in his wallet and be sure not to be too rough, but for him, it’s worked great. He also has the advantage of not being completely totally blind…so if he holds the bill close enough in bright light, he can make enough out of what it is.

   The acceptance of debit/credit cards for everything has pretty much eliminated this problem. He also told me once this is the reason ATM’s only give out 20′s…so a blind person could use the ATM and know the bills were all the same. He uses cash less.

   They also have hand-held bill-readers that will read off what bill it is.

   The thing about the current bills is that the mint designed them to be durable and last a while, the less often you have to replace them, the cheaper it is to manufacture them in the first place, and that’s not for the bill itself…but due to the anti-counterfitting features…EVERY feature of the bill has to hold on. The problem with the braille bill design is it compromises the durability of the bill…obviously if you’ve got holes in the bill already, that creates an area that’ll tear easily. Likewise, embossing doesn’t hold up for very long. It’s the same reason they never put holograms on money to prevent counterfitting…the hologram is useless the first time it’s folded or wadded up.

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4. desert dweller says:

   January 21, 2011 at 1:29 AM

   that is a very good question. I’m just guessing but it must be t5he honor system. cashiers and vendors must be trusted by the payer. it will be with credit cards also the blind one will not know what was rung in or what is on the receipt. or if they are really buying a rolex watch ot a timex. i know they wouldn’t need a watch because they can’t see but it is a good example for their brand name and merchandise purchases

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5. liberty 911 says:

   January 21, 2011 at 2:22 AM

   Several countries use a different size and color note for each denomination of their paper currency including: Australia (dollar), New Zealand (dollar), England (pound), and the European Union nations (Euro). I know that the US dollar is by far the most commonly used note in the world, but it is one way of handling this issue.

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