The Philadelphia Inquirer 

   June 4, 1999
   
                          Banks sued over ATM use
                                      
  Advocates for the blind say Mellon and PNC should provide voice-operated
                                 machines.
                                      
                          By Joseph A. Slobodzian
                           INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
                                      
   Advocates for the blind in Pennsylvania yesterday sued Mellon Bank and
   PNC Bank, contending that the banks must provide voice-equipped
   automatic teller machines to comply with federal disabilities law.
   The lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Courts in Philadelphia
   against Mellon, and in Pittsburgh against PNC, by the National
   Federation of the Blind of Pennsylvania and individual federation
   members who are customers of the banks.
   "The talking ATM technology is available, and we think the banks
   should provide them for their blind customers," said Theodore Young,
   owner of a Glenside computer company, president of the Pennsylvania
   Federation, and a blind customer of Mellon Bank.
   Young said the two banks were targeted in the suit because both are
   large statewide banks likely to have significant numbers of blind
   customers.
   Although most banks now have ATM machines with Braille raised-dot
   coding along the keys for blind users, Young said, only 15 percent of
   the blind are literate in Braille. Young said even those who are
   Braille-literate, as he is, are not helped when the bank changes the
   on-screen message or options on the ATM.
   "You wind up having to memorize the keys until the next changes,"
   Young added.
   The lawsuit, filed under the Americans With Disabilities Act, asks the
   court to find the banks in violation of the federal law and order them
   to install talking ATM technology.
   Spokesmen for Mellon and PNC said yesterday that they were not
   permitted to comment on pending litigation.
   John Hall, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association, a
   Washington-based industry group, said talking ATM technology is new
   and not in common use in U.S. banks.
   Hall said an association task force worked with disabilities groups at
   the time the federal law took effect in 1992 and approved
   accommodations for the blind such as Braille directions and
   bank-sponsored training for the blind on using ATM machines.
   Voice-equipped ATMs were discounted as an option at the time, Hall
   said, because of security concerns when the ATM voice announces
   personal financial information about the blind customer.
   Young, however, said current technology would let the ATM machines
   broadcast aural directions that could only be heard by someone wearing
   a special headset programmed to receive it. Young said such an
   accommodation was critical for the blind as more federal and state
   government agencies are using direct-deposit to place social program
   benefits into recipients' bank accounts.
   Thomas H. Earle, a lawyer with the Disabilities Law Project in Center
   City who filed the suit for the blind federation, acknowledged that
   the talking bank technology was new but noted that Royal Bank of
   Canada had begun installing such machines in its banks.
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     ©1999 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.