It's Our Money Too!  

Our Message

It's time to make paper money accessible to all Americans, including blind people and those who work in low-light settings.

Imagine this: You're in a busy store and you pay for your purchase. The cashier gives back your change: $21. Which is the one-dollar bill and which is the twenty-dollar bill?

Or, imagine this: You're a pizza deliverer and you arrive at a house with a $30 order. The customer comes out and hands you two bills, but the porch light is burned out, so you can't see the money clearly enough to be sure what she's handing you. Should you just trust her?

These are just some of the real-life problems caused by our entirely visual paper money design.

In a place as technologically advanced as the United States, why can't we make paper currency more accessible? They're already doing it in roughly 100 other countries including Canada, Australia, Britain, and the countries of the European Union.

In 2002, the American Council of the Blind (ACB) filed a lawsuit against the Treasury Department demanding that it add features to U.S. paper money that will enable blind people to distinguish between denominations independently.

The Treasury protested that this would cost too much because it would require redesigning the currency--but in the meantime, they have spent millions of dollars to redesign nearly all of the denominations in circulation! As the Treasury continues to develop new bill designs with new anti-counterfeiting features, they should include accessibility features useful to blind people, people with dyslexia, and people who work with cash in low light.

The mission of OurMoneyToo.org is to raise public awareness about the inaccessibility of American paper money and to show how making our currency distinguishable by nonvisual means like size or tactile markings would benefit all Americans.