St. John’s Antigua- For the first time Braille features have been added to the Eastern Caribbean currency.

The historic development by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) is an effort to provide EC notes that are easier for visually impaired persons to use.

Braille is a method that is widely used by people with sight impairment to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.

It consists of a pattern or raised dots that are arranged on a special paper to represent letters, numbers and characters.

The Braille characters on the upgraded noted feature a cricket theme.

Commenting on the latest development, Deputy Governor of the ECCB Trevor Brathwaite said this has been on the cards for quite some time.

He said member countries have been requesting this for visually impaired persons to facilitate monetary transactions.

“After discussions with our note printers, we discovered it was relatively simple, because this is a feature which is done in Jamaica and Cayman. So we are not unique in that regard, it is not groundbreaking stuff, but certainly in the ECCU area it is a feature that after a lot of discussion in country for people with sight impairment that we could get … on our notes,” Braithwaite said.

He added that the only challenging aspect of this venture was to decide the best theme to be featured on the notes.

“We were very elated when the cricket theme came up because we saw that it fitted very nicely with our pleasure at watching and listening to cricket … I think everybody would have warmed to the idea of using a cricket theme,” he added.

The notes will feature a cricket ball and stumps in various configurations depending on the denomination. Different Braille features will also be on the surface of the notes so that visually impaired persons could feel the difference in the currency.

The notes were expected to be released on Thursday.

“Our first shipment of the $10 notes we issued on Tuesday and on Thursday which is a regular issue day. I don’t think they have reached the streets as yet. In sequence, the next will be the $20, $50, and $100 notes. We have not done $5 as yet because there is a significant amount of $5 notes within the system.”

The deputy governor said the bank will be working closely with community groups in the particular countries to monitor the use of the EC notes.