Changes required | Features must be added to American bills

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WASHINGTON - The United States discriminates against the blind by printing paper money that makes it impossible for them to distinguish among the bills' varying values, a U.S. federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

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CASH CASE SETTLED: The U.S. Treasury Department could be forced to redesign its bills, like the one shown above, to include features that will allow the blind to distinguish between the values.

The ruling upholds a decision by a lower court in 2006. It could force the U.S. Treasury Department to redesign its money. Suggested changes have ranged from making bills different sizes to printing them with raised markings.

The American Council for the Blind sued for such changes but the Treasury Department has been fighting the case for about six years.

"I don't think we should have to rely on people to tell us what our money is," said Mitch Pomerantz, the council's president.

The U.S. government acknowledged that the design hinders the blind but argued that they have adapted: some rely on clerks to help them, some use credit cards and others fold certain corners to help distinguish between bills.

The court ruled 2-1 that such adaptations were insufficient.

Courts can't decide how to design the currency, since that's up to the Treasury Department. But the ruling forces the department to address what the court called a discriminatory problem.

Pomerantz says it could take years to change the look of money and until then he expects that similar-looking money will continue to get printed and spent.

But since blindness becomes more common with age, people in the 30s and 40s should know that, when they get older, "they will be able to identify their $1 bills from their fives, tens and twenties," he said.

Other countries have added such features, the court said, and the U.S. never explained what made its situation so unique.