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Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

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One thing about accessibility and usability, is that when you design something for the minority it tends to make things better for the majority. Take ramps for example, they not only server those in wheel chairs, but also families with strollers and elderly with walkers.

Crutches and canes can be easier on a ramp, too. Even people with fine balance but limits on movement of the hip, knee, or ankle can benefit.

The unbearable pain of having to handle bills of different sizes, there is not enough empathy in this world to truly pay hommage to your suffering.

Does the Canadian solution of adding brail to the notes inconvenience you, or is that an acceptable way to make sure that people with disabilities can participate in cash transactions safely?

Does having different sized coins strike you as an inconvenience?

Why does a feature that can be used by anyone, regardless of disability, strike you as "inconvenient for almost everybody"?

What, exactly, is inconvenient about having notes be different sizes?

Different sized bills are harder to stack in a wallet. Braille is a much better way to handle the problem. No cost to the majority, while solving the problem for the minority.

> Different sized bills are harder to stack in a wallet.

This has never been my experience. What is the challenge?

As long as the largest bills fit and the smallest bills don’t get lost I don’t understand how it’s so much harder.

I'm used to Euro notes, and having each denomination be a different colour and height in my wallet is very useful for pulling a specific one out.

I keep them in order, with €5s in the front.

It seems like having equivalent sized notes is just your personal preference, and that you are projecting that as an inconvenience onto "the majority". Based on the comments it seems like even people without disabilities mostly don't care, or actually think that it is a good feature.

For my side, even if I did agree with your preference, I am perfectly willing to deal with the incredible hardship of slightly different sized notes in my wallet in exchange for a society where disabled people need not fear being ripped off.

That’s a terribly myopic take

Unfortunate metaphor in context....

It's primarily done for security and secondarily a benefit making it easier (for everyone!) to identify denomination by feel

What security benefit is unlocked by varying the size of the bills?

For (very fancy) cloth/paper bills like American ones, some counterfeiters wash the inks out of $1 bills to make $100 ones. Only possible if the $100s are the same or smaller size.

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/counterfeit-currency-warni...

I believe the US made washing much harder with other techniques because of this in recent years.

Quite the opposite. As a fully abled person I find it incredibly annoying to have to flip through US notes instead of just immediately picking out the right one by size and/or color.

Use a wallet with a divider, and sort your bills. Won't have to flip through until you carry several each of five or more denominations. If you regularly do, then use two dividers.

It seems like a roundabout way to reduce the impact of a symptom of a self inflicted problem.

It's clearly not a solution, and it seems like it's a suggestion that can only come from a place of "but we've always done it this way" without experiencing a world without the problem.

Even if 5s and 10s are the only ones mixed together, I still have to look for a number. In every other currency you just… immediately take the right one.

That's not even taking into account that wallets are getting smaller and smaller as people need to bring them less. So adding dividers would be like acquiring George Costanza's wallet.

Hell, if they're different size you can even feel the value of a loose note in your pocket.

Or put another way: "Deliberately griefing the experience of a small number of people just to make it marginally more convenient for everyone else."

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