November 30, 2006	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 8, 1427

WASHINGTON, Nov 29: A federal judge has ordered the US government to redesign the dollar bill so that blind people will be able to identify differently denominated bills.

All US banknotes currently printed by the government, from a one dollar bill up to a 100 dollar note, are exactly the same size and colour.

The American Council of the Blind, which brought a lawsuit against the government, says this makes it impossible for blind people to tell the bills apart.

Federal Judge James Robertson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said in a ruling late Tuesday that the government had to move to redesign the famous dollar bill.

He said in his ruling that dollar bills should be “designed to incorporate features that will make them accessible to people with blindness.”

The Treasury, which is opposing the case, has 10 days to lodge an appeal to Robertson's ruling.

Lawyers for the American Council of the Blind have pushed their case by arguing that of the over 180 countries around the world that issue paper currency, only the United States prints bills that are identical in size and colour in all denominations.

Euro bank notes for example are printed in different sized denominations while the Swiss Franc contains intaglio digits and a perforated numeral that can be identified by touch.

Some 937,000 million Americans are legally blind, according to documents filed in the case.—AFP