The Reserve Bank of Australia recently announced the new look $5 banknote would be going into distribution with a few new changes added on.

One extraordinary feature of the new $5 banknote is the special tactile surface which will help Australians with vision impairments better understand and know which note they’re handling.

The RBA said the new tactile banknote will “help the vision-impaired community distinguish between different denominations of banknotes. The tactile feature will be in addition to the existing features present on our current banknote series – bright colours, large contrasting numerals and size differentials.”

All of these changes have come after some powerful lobbying by Oakhurst teenager, Connor McLeod.

Back in 2015 Nepean News (issue 145) brought you the story of Connor and his fight with the RBA to introduce tactile banknotes into Australia.

He received an amazing response with around 60,000 signature on his petition and strong support from the Human Rights Commission and Vision Australia.

Due to his constant lobbying Connor was asked to address and present to the upper echelon of the RBA in November 2014.

Despite his nerves Connor was able to ‘sweet talk’ the RBA into coming on board with this proposed changes.

Blind since birth, due to a congenital eye disorder, Connor has never let his vision impairments get in the way of his activism or lifestyle choices.

Last year Connor’s efforts were recognised on an international scale when he was invited by the American National Braille Press to attend a ceremony in Boston, held to commemorate his outstanding leadership.

Local member for Chifley Ed Husic commended Connor on his outstanding efforts and said he had demonstrated amazing leadership and perseverance in his efforts to push for positive change.

“Connor will make life easier for more than 300,000 visually impaired Australians,” Mr Husic said.