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.
__________________________________________________________________
©1999 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
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