WALLET HELPS IDENTIFY BANKNOTE DENOMINATIONS

Flipping open a brown leather wallet, Hong Kong designer Comma Leung Man-wai closes her eyes and runs her fingers across a stash of banknotes of various denominations inside. She singles one out and accurately identifies it as a HK$100 bill.

But this is no magic trick.

The wallet, created by Leung, 29, has a special panel attached inside which allows a user to slide notes up against it and tell their value according to width. Looking no different from any other wallet on the outside, it is specially designed for the visually impaired.

The wallet is the first signature offering from Leung's studio. She originally came up with the idea for her graduation project while majoring in communication design at Polytechnic University.

Her inspiration came from an experience one day, when she saw a man walking with a crutch in Shek Kip Mei. Leung observed that he almost stepped into flower beds or nearly fell down stairs several times.

The man's struggles moved her, and she introduced herself to him, wanting to know if she could help. He then led her to the NGO Hong Kong Society for the Blind, where she met Au Kit-ying, 33, who is visually impaired.

Having spent some time together, Leung found that Au often had difficulty distinguishing denominations of banknotes, which was what sparked the wallet idea.

It took her half a year to complete the design, including taking Au to the market to choose suitable materials.

After graduation, Leung spent half a year improving the wallet's design, including crowdfunding it in 2016 to raise HK$300,000 to produce 1,500 pieces.

Leung has also designed other products for people with disabilities.

These include a coin purse catering to those with cerebral palsy and who have difficulties using their fingers. A special rim on the purse lid allows the user to simply get coins neatly by tilting the purse without having to rummage inside.

To read the complete article, see:
How a Hong Kong designer came up with a wallet that can help the visually impaired identify banknote denominations (https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3002869/how-hong-kong-designer-came-wallet-can-help)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web