Hello,

The U.S. Access Board is in the middle of revising the ADA
Accessibility Guidelines for automatic teller machines.  The
Access Board is the federal agency in charge of making
accessibility standards for the ADA and the federal government.
This is the first major upgrade to access standards since the ADA
went into law 10 years ago.  The new standards call for talking
automatic teller machines so that blind people can use them
independently.  Not only would the blind be able to have all
information on the video screen voiced, but the proposed
guidelines call for all information printed on a receipt and an
orientation to the machine to be spoken as well.  If the proposed
guidelines are adopted, talking ATM's will be the reality
throughout America at every bank and in every community.

Unfortunately, industry has started to shred our promise of
independent access to financial services.  A summary of comments
given by industry representatives at an Access Board hearing in
March is at the end of this message.

We can support our friends in Washington in standing up to the
ATM industry and beat back their attacks to our independence to
financial services.  We have come an incredible distance with the
proposal for talking atms and commitments by some banks.  Now
blind people and those with disabilities themselves must go the
rest of the distance for the potential of ATM access to be
reality.  The Access Board needs to know that blind persons need
talking atms and why.  Have you ever gotten $200 or $220 from an
atm when you only wanted $20?  Has an atm ever eaten your card
because you lost track of screen layout and could not complete a
transaction?  Do you not feel confident to use an atm on your own
without assistance as a blind person?  Have you or someone you
know been robbed by the person helping you use an atm because you
could not read the video screen?  Tell the Access Board your
story and how an accessible, talking atm would be a solution for
you.  If you are blind, be sure to state that fact.  Also, if you
are a Braille reader, let them know that as well.  Some think
that simply putting Braille on machines makes them useable by
blind people.  Just sending in a few words--a sentence or two--
about your experiences with atms will go a long way in educating
people on the need for talking atms.

Sending comments in is easy.  They can be sent by e-mail to:

[log in to unmask]

mailto:[log in to unmask]

The second address with a mailto link is for those with e-mail
software that has clickable url's but not clickable e-mail
addresses.  With either address, simply hit return on the address
and a new message will be created with the address automatically
placed in the to field and your cursor will be dropped into the
subject line of a fresh message.  Type in a subject, tell your
story, put your full name and address at the bottom and hit the
send button.  That's all it takes.

**Be sure to include your full name and postal address in the
text of your message to ensure that it gets registered.

You can also fire up your fax modem and send in comments by fax
instead of e-mail.  The fax number is (202) 272-5447.

Comments must be received by May 15.

If we come together on this one in the next few weeks, we can
have access to banking and financial services in the years to
come.

kelly

                  Summary of Industry Comments


John Ward, the Chairman Elect of Consumers Bankers Association
and also representing the Electronics Funds Transfer Association
testified to the Access Board in March that he came to "offer. .
. a simple message:  adoption of these proposals for ATM's would
be technically very difficult and financially burdensome on the
banking and payments industries.  Because of the difficulty and
costs associated with development and deployment of the
technology necessary to provide audio capable machines, we
believe that the requirements will not enhance and may even
hinder access to ATM services for visually impaired individuals."
Ward continued the fear mongering by saying "we believe the
adoption of the proposal will stifle the development of
innovative access solutions for the visually impaired because it
will drive development to one type of solution.  Technology is
dynamic and the accessibility guidelines should encourage that
dynamism rather than impose rigidly expensive requirements."
Ward and his industry of course failed to mention that Citibank,
Wells Fargo, and the Bank of America have agreed to in stall
thousands of talking atms in the next three years.  What has been
described as "technically very difficult" has been available from
one of the largest atm manufacturers since 1993 and the two
largest atm manufacturers, NCR and Diebold, have continuously
featured on their web pages since 1997 talking ATM's and upgrade
kits to make a number of existing machines speech accessible to
the blind.

Nessa Feddis of the American Bankers Association continued the
industry whitewash by saying "banks and ATM vendors are making
great strides. . .  for
blind users," and then declared:  "we
urge the Board to adopt a flexible approach that does not inhibit
innovation and development of superior and more economical
solutions."

 Rob Evans of the NCR Corporation, the global leader in ATM
shipments,  echoed his industry pals.  "In general," he says,
"NCR questions the need for the majority of the changes to the
existing ADAAG rule as it applies to  ATM's.  With few exceptions
we are in favor of the current rule enforced over the proposed
rule.  In specific terms, we disagree with the specification of
particular technology for audio read-through of ATM transactions.
We concur this is restrictive to the exclusion of other
technologies which may work more reliably and efficiently."

In no place in the full text of the testimony does Rob Evans or
anyone else from the industry crowd actually name other options
that are superior, more reliable, more efficient and more
economical than talking ATM's.  No one from industry can suggest
let alone point to an alternative to audio output that provides
access to ATM machines for the blind and visually impaired.  The
industry representatives talked about the increased use of online
banking and 24-hour telephone systems, but no one could explain
how home computers deliver cash or how someone can deposit a
paycheck through the telephone.  The current ADA standards that
call for ATMs to have "Instructions and all information for use.
. . " to be made ". . . accessible to and independently usable by
persons with vision impairments" have been in effect for nearly a
decade.  As anyone can tell from the non-specific nature of the
standard, banks and ATM owners have had maximum flexibility to
innovate, explore alternatives, and create dynamic solutions.  As
we all know atms are as usable today for the blind as they were
10, 15, or 20 years ago.  The banks that have committed to
install talking atms agreed only when blind people retained
attorneys that threatened national class action lawsuits if the
banks did not make their atms accessible to the blind.  It is
time to make the implicit language of independent usability found
in the current guidelines explicit with talking ATM's.  The ADA
already has mechanisms in place if required accommodations are
extremely expensive and financially burdensome or to allow for
substitution of access approaches if industry comes up with
something better.


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