Here's another take on the NFB-Diebold ATM settlement.  It should be noted
that the convention to which curtis Chong refers was this summer's NFB
convention.  Diebold demonstrated a talking atm there even though the NFB
was suing them in federal court for inaccessible atm's.

kelly



                                       Akron Beacon
Journal
                                     November 2, 2000,
Thursday
KR-ACC-NO: AK-ATM
LENGTH: 547 words
HEADLINE: Green, Ohio-Based ATM Maker to Develop Voice
Technology
BYLINE: By Frank Witsil
BODY:
Diebold Inc. plans to make automated tellers that
talk.

The Green-based cash-machine maker announced yesterday
that it is developing VOICE technology to help blind
people use
its ATMs. The less expensive machines use a man's
voice; the more expensive ones, a woman's.

Diebold has experimented with the technology since
1992, but did not offer its cheaper models until after
the National
Federation of the Blind sued the company earlier this
year for operating ATMs not accessible to the visually
impaired. The suit
was dropped after the company agreed to add the
talking feature.

The company estimates that less than 1 percent of the
hundreds of thousands of ATMs in the United States
have voice
capability because the technology is expensive and
complex.

The problem with traditional ATMs is that they did not
offer blind users a way to read the screen. Many ATMs
use Braille on
the keys, but unless users can see what the machine is
asking, they do not know what buttons to press. Blind
people have had
to memorize the order of the questions and hope that
they are responding correctly.

The new ATMs will allow users to plug in earphones,
listen to the questions and respond by pressing
Braille-marked buttons.
Diebold plans to test its new machines in April and
begin selling them within the next year, said Alan
Looney, Diebold's director
of product planning and management.

The Baltimore-based NFB wants all of the company's new
machines to be outfitted with voice capability and
others to be
retrofitted with it.

"We support that objective," Looney said. However, he
does not know how quickly the company can do that.

All of the new machines operated by Diebold will have
the talking feature and will be marked with the NFB's
seal of approval.
Diebold also will contribute $ 1 million for the
construction of the NFB's National Research & Training
Institute for the Blind.

Diebold's ATMs cost between $ 6,000 and $ 40,000 for
its high- end machines. The more expensive machines
offer Web
links, better ways to identify users and check
cashing.

The ATM upgrades will cost less than $ 1,000 per
machine and will be manufactured in Lexington, N.C.
Diebold has some
voice machines at its laboratory for demonstration
purposes, but no working models in Ohio. The company
plans to test a
talking machine in the Canton area in the spring.

Diebold declined to disclose how much all of the
upgrades will cost the company. The company posted
sales of $ 1.63 billion
in 1999.

Curtis Chong, director of technology for the NFB, said
he has used a talking ATM. It was so popular at a
recent convention
demonstration that thousands of blind people used the
machine.

There are more than 1 million blind people in the
United States, Chong said.

Dayton-based NCR Corp. also manufactures talking ATMs.


NCR spokesman Rob Evans said his company does not have
any working models in Ohio, but expects to expand
production
of its talking machines as the government more clearly
defines what is covered under the Americans with
Disabilities Act.

The act requires companies to make services accessible
to the disabled.


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