Currency for the blind

I would like to introduce myself as a visually-challenged youth activist. I have been trying to raise a voice for my community for the past six years now. I want to highlight the issue of inaccessibility of currency notes for the visually-challenged. The State Bank of Pakistan had recently claimed that our currency was accessible for visually-challenged individuals. The SBP explained in great detail that there are raised dots and lines to help us easily understand and use money. The SBP also launched videos to create awareness about currency notes featured among the masses, but unfortunately those videos are useless for the visually-challenged as the details in the videos are all for sighted people.

Here I would like to challenge the claim by the SBP of the notes being accessible. It’s true that these notes do contain these dots and lines but only in printed form; they are not in Braille. One simply cannot feel any raised feature and they are just plain paper for a visually-challenged individual. At the moment, there are seven types of currency notes in the market. Unfortunately, all of them are inaccessible and unidentifiable for a person with no sight. I request the authorities concerned to please take the necessary steps on the proposed subject to make Pakistani currency notes identifiable for a visually-challenged person. This can be done by making those printed dot and lines tactile, which can be felt, not just seen.

M Ahsan Buksh

Karachi