Poland Central Bank Issues World’s First Coin in Braille

 

Poland’s central bank has just issued the world’s first coin with markings in Braille, for the visually impaired. 

 

[Witold Kozinski, Deputy President, National Bank of Poland]: 

“The Polish central bank is mindful of everyone, not just those who have unimpaired access to the world, but also those whose access is impaired. So we’ve issued a coin with markings in Braille - for the partially sighted and the completely visually impaired.”

 

The commemorative coin honors the 100th anniversary of an association that cares for the visually impaired and helps them adapt to the world around them.

 

[Wladyslaw Golab, President, Association for the Visually Impaired]: 

“The Association for the Visually Impaired celebrates its 100th anniversary today, and we consider this initiative of the National Bank of Poland as a kindhearted gesture towards both the Association and towards the visually impaired.”

 

Besides the new coin, the Polish central bank has also come up with a dictionary of economics terms in sign language for the hearing impaired. 

 

[Przemyslaw Kuk, Director, NBP Press Office]: 

“This year we’ve created a dictionary of economic terms in sign language for finance because sign language lacks many terms used every day in economics and finance and the hearing impaired have a hard time expressing certain concepts.…connected with personal finance, for example. Terms like ‘leasing’ or ‘commission’ or ‘consumer credit’ didn’t exist. These terms have now been added to the sign language lexicon.”

 

Both the coin and the dictionary are part of a broader initiative by the bank called “Accessible Finance”.

 

The project aims to make the world of finance more accessible to people with disabilities.

 

NTD News, Warsaw, Poland