Banknotes for the visually impaired

In Eric Karjaluoto’s excellent new book, The Design Method, there’s a page where he mentions how Canadian banknotes are printed with a tactile feature in the corner so the visually impaired can easily tell what denomination they’re holding.

Canadian banknoteImage credit: Bank of Canada

Designing currency is a project I’d love to do one day, so I was curious about what other countries do to help those with a visual impairment. Brazil, Thailand, Malawi, and Bahrain use embossing. China’s banknotes are said to include Chinese Braille. Hong Kong followed China’s lead. And all Chilean banknotes have tactile features in one corner.

The Bank of England has this to say about Braille on notes.

“…on the advice of The Royal Institute for the Blind the bank has not included this because very few blind people now read Braille; it is also regarded as a feature that may well wear out over the life of a banknote and therefore only serve to mislead if a tactile feature of this type became incomplete.”

But it does incorporate a few things to help the visually impaired (different-sized notes, with each using different coloured shapes — similar in many ways to the design of euro banknotes).

What about the decline in numbers of those reading Braille?

The New York Times quotes from a 2008 report by the National Federation of the Blind:

“Whereas roughly half of all blind children learned Braille in the 1950s, today that number is as low as 1 in 10.”

Smartphones are cited as just one reason, and where money is concerned there are two free apps — EyeNote (iPhone/iPad) and IDEAL Currency Identifier (Android) — that tell you the denomination when you wave a note in front of the camera (US dollar). In Japan, efforts have been made to make banknotes easier to use for people who are visually impaired — scroll to bottom for details about the app (thanks for the link, Dallas). And for $9.99 you can buy the LookTel Money Reader app. It recognises 21 currencies.

Then there’s the Click Pocket Money Brailler that lets you stamp your notes with the relevant Braille number.

Click Pocket Money Brailler

But obviously you’d first need to know what note you’re holding. There are the apps above, and Ottawa-based Brytech manufactures note readers for US and Canadian currencies. For those in the UK, the Royal National Institute of Blind People has advice and sells various products for identifying different banknotes.

In a 2009 ruling that ordered the US Treasury to come up with ways to help the blind recognise different denominations, US district judge James Robertson said that of 180 countries issuing paper currency, only the United States prints bills that are identical in size and colour in all their denominations.

US dollar bill denominations

That prompted design studio Dowling Duncan (now merged with Mucho) to create its own design that would clearly be more helpful to the visually impaired.

US dollar Dowling DuncanDowling Duncan’s dollar bill idea

Many people in the US currently use a variety of folds to determine what’s in their wallets, with these ones recommended by the American Foundation for The Blind.

  • Leave $1 bills unfolded
  • Fold $5 bills lengthwise
  • Fold $10 bills by width
  • Fold $20 bills lengthwise and then by width

A somewhat-related story, did you know that if you live in the United States or Canada, chances are you have cocaine in your wallet?


Comments

9 responses to “Banknotes for the visually impaired”

  1. I live in Malawi which is a primarily cash based society which means that notes wear very quickly. After money changes a few hands (whether a very decent exchange in a shop or in the wet hands of vegetable vendors or trampled on at wedding ceremonies where money is tossed into the air) the braille features do indeed disappear.

  2. It’s great to see so many creative and ingenious solutions to this problem.
    In the UK we rely heavily on debit card transactions but I notice that some PIN keypads do have Braille on them?
    Braille would surely wear on paper notes but why are we still using paper anyway – maybe plastic is the way to go – they would surely last longer and be harder to forge.

  3. I never really thought why the US does not have something to help with the differentiation in the types of money for blind people. I’m pretty sure if they took the time to figure it out it would not be so hard. Because it seems as if the federal reserve is more concerned with preventing fraud then anything else with money.

  4. Rachel Avatar
    Rachel

    You’ve got me thinking about currency where I live (Australia). I know that all our coins are different sizes and in some cases, different shapes; to help differentiate and identify their value.

    Our notes do have tactile features, but I think that’s more to stop forgery rather than to assist with identification. The notes all come in different shapes, although I always wondered if identification is really that easy, given you may need other notes to compare against to be able to make an accurate identification. Notes do also have a clear panel with a different shape for each value; perhaps that helps too.

  5. A great episode of 99% Invisible covers currency design and the future of money: http://99percentinvisible.org/post/23191508700/episode-54-the-colour-of-money

  6. Ashok Kulkarni Avatar
    Ashok Kulkarni

    In India we have an even simpler system of identifying notes for the visually impaired. (Keeping in mind that the majority are illiterate and the multiplicity of languages in use here.) The notes have a raised shape that the blind can easily identify and sort out the notes. Rs.500 = round; Rs.100 = triangle; Rs.50 = square; Rs.20 = rectangle; additionally, almost all notes have raised numerals and come in different sizes which make it easy for the visually impaired to identify them.

    Rupee notes for the visually impaired

  7. Mark Battista Avatar
    Mark Battista

    I’m also from Australia and a teacher of blind and vision-impaired children. As Rachel has stated, each note is different in size and makes it relatively easy for people to distinguish (even those with reduced sensitivity). Our coins are not only different in diameter but also have different milling on the circumference to make each coin identifiable. Usually the person uses their fingernails to tell the difference between some coins that may be similar in circumference.

  8. Interesting information about designing currency. It seems like the possibility for making it easier to differentiate the denominations is there….but not every country is able or willing to do so. However, since the use of braille is on the decline maybe India’s different sized notes is a better adaptation….

    As a side note….in Canadian cities many elevators, doors, and ATM machines have braille built into their design too.

  9. Suriya Avatar
    Suriya

    We recently, developed an Android app for this purpose. We also plan to release it soon, free of cost. Though, we used Indian Rupee as example, the method can be extended to any currency and combination of different currencies. We also claim that, our method is superior to existing apps like EyeNote, LookTel and IDEAL Currency Identifier.

    Here is a demo of the app
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAzgy-AhJLM

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