Justification Document

Focus Group Justification

Focus groups of 12 to 24 individuals represent an excellent forum for BEP personnel to obtain feedback directly from blind and visually impaired individuals regarding variations of raised tactile features being considered for use as a mechanism for denominating U.S. banknotes by touch.  This effort on the part of the BEP is in response to the District Court ruling in favor of the American Council of the Blind, et al, which requires the Secretary of the Treasury to provide ‘Meaningful Access’ to U.S. paper currency. 

Development of a raised tactile feature has been on-going since the Court ruling in 2008.  The information BEP has obtained at various conferences and conventions for blind and visually impaired individuals has been invaluable in identifying specific characteristics of the tactile feature concepts presented at the sessions that lend themselves to additional development. In order for the BEP to reduce the number of tactile feature options for further development, receiving feedback from blind individuals regarding the effectiveness of the types of features currently being considered on a more frequent basis than is available through the main national conventions and conferences for the blind is essential. For this reason BEP needs to engage smaller focus groups more frequently to obtain this additional feedback.

Recently, the BEP has produced additional samples of developmental tactile features for use on paper currency, and will continue to do so for the next several months. The BEP requests clearance under the PRA to conduct up to four (4) focus group sessions of up to twenty four (24) blind individuals each, to be conducted in conjunction with Lighthouse International (NY, NY), The Blinded Veterans Association (Washington, DC), the Perkins School for the Blind and other organizations, starting April 4, 2013 through August 31, 2013. These sessions will be in addition to similar sessions that will be held in July at the annual national conventions of the NFB and ACB.

The test protocol that will be used at these focus groups is the same one that was approved by OMB and used at the 2013 CSUN conference.  This protocol was developed to ensure the method of presenting the various samples to the blind participants and collecting the associated data and comments regarding the samples evaluated provides the most relevant and accurate feedback and data for use by the BEP in refining their tactile feature development effort in the future.

Type of Intake	Total Estimated Number of Respondents	Estimated Number of Intakes per Respondent	Average Burden Hours per Intake	Estimated Total Burden Hours Requested
In-Person Questions	96	1	20 – 30 minutes	48 hrs.