WASHINGTON – By keeping all U.S. currency the same size and texture, the Treasury Department has denied blind people meaningful access to money, a federal judge said Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman said the government has violated the law, and he ordered it to come up with ways for the blind to tell bills apart.
He said he wouldn't tell Treasury officials how to fix the problem but ordered them to begin working on it within 10 days. The American Council of the Blind proposed several options, including printing bills of differing sizes.
Concerning such options, Friedman wrote, "The government has not sustained its burden of showing that any of them would be unduly burdensome."
The opinion came after a four-year legal fight.
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