AP Article

Here is a really good article I found on the subject.

The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit upholds
a decision by a lower court in 2006. It could force the 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. acknowledges the design hinders blind people but it argued
that blind people
have adapted. Some relied on store clerks to help them, some used credit
cards and
others folded certain corners to help distinguish between bills.
The court ruled 2-1 that such adaptations were insufficient. The
government might
as well argue that, since handicapped people can crawl on all fours or
ask for help
from strangers, there's no need to make buildings wheelchair accessible,
the court
said.
"Even the most searching tactile examination will reveal no difference
between a
$100 bill and a $1 bill. The Secretary has identified no reason that
requires paper
currency to be uniform to the touch," Judge Judith W. Rogers wrote for
the majority.
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.
Officials at the Treasury Department and the department's Bureau of
Engraving and
Printing, which prints the nation's currency, had no immediate comment
on the ruling.
The government could appeal to the Supreme Court.
While the government has been fighting to overturn the lower court
ruling, it has
been taking some steps toward modifying U.S. currency for the visually
impaired.
The most recent currency redesign of the $5 bill introduced in March
features a
giant "5" printed in purple on one side of the bill to help those with
vision problems
distinguish the bill.
The appeals court also ruled that the U.S. failed to explain why
changing the money
would be an undue burden. The Treasury Department has redesigned its
currency several
times in recent years, and adding features to aid the blind would come
at a relatively
small cost, the court said.
Other countries have added such features, the court said, and the U.S.
never explained
what made its situation so unique.
Not all blind people agreed the money needed to be changed. The
National Federation
of the Blind sided with the government and told the appeals court that
no changes
were needed.
Charlie Richardson, the legally blind manager of Charlie's Express Stop
inside the
Capitol in Albany, N.Y., said he doesn't oppose changing the money but
disagrees
with the ruling.
"To actually be discriminated against is to have something denied to
you," Richardson
said. "We're not denied the use of money."
__
Associated Press writer Valerie Bauman in Albany, N.Y., contributed to
this report.