Suppose for a moment that the paper currency of the United States were recalled and reissued. The new bills were red, white, and blue, but there were no pictures of past presidents and ambassadors on them nor were there any numeric designations. Although everybody was issued a stack of currency whose value was equal to that turned in, the value of each bill received was indeterminate. Its worth would be whatever a merchant claimed it to be, and change received would then also be what the merchant claimed it to be.
Consider what might result while shopping one day. After choosing an item priced at $35, Merchant Joe claims the bill offered for payment is worth $50 and returns two bills. MJ says one is worth $5; the other $10. The next purchase is at Merchant Sally for $14 using the two bills from Merchant Joe. MS claims the two bills are only worth $2. Did Merchant Joe give you the wrong currency or is Merchant Sally changing the value of the red, white, and blue currency?
This is the dilemma many blind people in the U.S. face every day. Money is worth what the government says it is through a social contract that some pieces of “paper” are worth more than others, but the blind, independently, cannot know paper’s value and live in a world of dependence. For those who are blind, “knowing” the worth of paper currency is really given through the good will of sighted people around them (or using a time-consuming electronic process to check each bill). Think about it. If the money you carry in your wallet is only worth what others say it is and you had to depend on someone else always telling you what your money was worth, would you be satisfied?
The blindness community through the work of the American Council of the Blind (ACB) has been asking for “accessible and inclusive” currency since 1972. The process of making our money fully accessible and inclusive is not so difficult. More than a hundred other countries have found a way to make their currencies fully accessible. In 2006 and 2008, the courts ordered the U.S. Treasury to issue any newly designed paper currency in an accessible and inclusive format.
Fully accessible and inclusive currency is a minimal gesture of our government which says that all who live here have a right to full participation in the economy of our country. The new $20 bill is particularly important. It must neither be a concession to those who have asked to be recognized nor a crumb that falls from the master’s table. This new bill must recognize the value black women and blind people have in the United States and the positive contributions they have made here.
One hundred ten years to the day since Harriet Tubman’s death, ACB, Women on 20s, and others rallied in La Fayette Square (Wash., D.C.) Friday, March 10, 2023, to demand that the Treasury fulfill its promise to include accessible and inclusive markings for the blind and visually impaired people on paper currency and to include the picture of Tubman on the $20. She will be the first woman and the first black person portrayed on U.S. paper currency.
The planned rally led to a meeting of representatives from ACB and the Treasury, including the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, to discuss and prepare for accessible and inclusive currency. For the first time, five blind people were able to touch a $10 bill with the proposed braille feature. The meeting ended with a plan for the Treasury and ACB to work together to perfect the design for new paper money.
The first accessible $10 bill should roll off the presses in 2026. The Harriet Tubman $20 bill is scheduled for 2030. Other bills will be released in 2028 and 2032.
SHOW US THE MONEY! THE PROMISE HAS BEEN MADE. NOW LET’S FINISH THE JOB.
Show
Me the Money: Marching Together for Accessible and Inclusive Currency - YouTube
