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But Seriously : What About Braille on Dollar bills?

Dennis, the Netherlands, via email, said ...
“Before the very ugly Euro was introduced, we had the Dutch Guilder in Holland. This was one of the most beautiful and awarded designs ever produced. Something I miss very much are the Braille symbols the Guilder used, which differentiated each note. The Netherlands was (as far as I know) the only country that used Braille to help the blind better recognize their money more easily. When you redesign the dollar please don’t forget about the disabled people. The illustration shows how the same method used on the Guilder could be applied to the Dollar bill.”

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Posted May 22, 2009
May 22, 2009
 said...
Actually, from what I've heard, it's far cheaper for the government to just give every blind individual a bill reader that'll say the denomination of bills than it is to add braille to the dollar.
May 22, 2009
Dollar ReDe$ign Project said...
So why haven't they I wonder
May 22, 2009
Wayne VanWeerthuizen said...
With just numbers, it looks too easy to defraud blind people by modifying the Braille dots, such as adding a dot to make to make a $10 say $50 in Braille. If the denomination is going to be indicated in Braille at all, it would be more secure to have it fully spelled out in English: "TEN", "FIFTY", etc.
May 24, 2009
 said...
Canadian currency has Braille dots and raised printing (of the denomination) which is both hard to counterfeit and makes it easier for people to tell what a bill is by touch.
May 26, 2009
cimnine said...
The swiss bills all have braille-signs on them.
May 26, 2009
Adam Rice said...
Japan has only three notes (¥1000/5000/10000), and each has distinctive raised dots (one dot, two dots vertical, two dots horizontal). The bills are also slightly different widths. I am astonished that this is not more widespread.
May 26, 2009
frederico silva said...
The Euro currency uses different sizes to identify each note, I'm not an expert in visual impaired solutions, but wouldn't a note by its use gets more difficult to identify , since the braille dots are embossed and not a real 3d element?
my 50 cents...
May 29, 2009
Meaghan said...
Canada also has braille on their notes.
Jun 16, 2009
Mary said...
This one has a better solution.
Jun 16, 2009
Justin said...
Canada's notes do NOT have braille, and as far as I found doing research for a currency redesign project late last year, neither does any other country.

Why not? Like the majority of "normally" sighted people, most visually impaired people simply aren't braille-literate. And it's likely that repeated reading of the braille would wear the bumps down quickly. Some nations do have raised dots, but they are not braille. It's a semi-standardized system used by Canada and some European countries prior to adoption of the Euro.

As for note-readers being cheaper, that's not likely. I found a 2006 estimate of approximately $300 per unit for note-reading devices. Consider things like upkeep of the devices, both in terms of general maintenance and updating data files when a user travels or a nation redesigns a currency, and there's three big wholes in the argument in support of them.

 
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