The same company that produced Chicago's fare vending machines for the el
and subway also produced New York's.  Ours don't use earphones and play
the speech in the open air.  While earphones are fully appropriate for an
ATM, I wonder if they are necessary simply to purchase a $1.50 transit
fare or to add $10 to a fare card?

Like New York's ours also has Braille instructions to get one started and
the button is integrated into the design of the machine so one either
needs to read the instructions or get an orientation from someone.

Kelly



----- Original Message -----
From: "Sam Troia" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 10:11 PM
Subject: Accessible Metrocard vending machines


I don't know if it's just me but in case I'm not the only one who missed
this important information, I want to let everyone in the New York City
area
know that all Metro Card vending machines (located in all subway
stations)
are equipped with speech output.  There are some braille labels on the
machines as well.  All one need do is to bring a pair of earbuds or a
headset and plug them in to receive step-by-step spoken instructions on
the
use of the machine.  Having been shown one by a sighted gentleman I noted
that there is a normal phone-style number pad as well as the touch
screen.
I have not yet used one of these so for now I can't comment on how well
or
poorly the machine works but I will try to use one sometime in the near
future and will write more then if there is interest.  Or perhaps someone
who is already familiar with the use of these talking vending machines
can
report on their functionality.

Regards,
Sam Troia


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VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
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[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html