Cincinnati Enquirer

    Saturday, May 17, 2003

    What's the Buzz?
Who's talking? It might be the ATM

    Trying to make it easier for people with visual impairments to get
access to cash, PNC Bank is installing talking ATMs for those customers.

    PNC, operator of Cincinnati's fourth-largest bank, has put a
voice-enabled ATM at its North College Hill branch near the Clovernook
Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired. It also has added one at its
Terrace Park branch and plans to install another at its Anderson
Township branch this month.

    PNC joins Bank One and U.S. Bank in offering talking ATMs locally.

    The talking ATMs, made available with new technology on existing
ATMs, will allow users to do such things as get cash, make deposits,
check balances and transfer money between various accounts.

    Customers use the ATMs by plugging earphones into jacks and
following talking directions. Users also get audio confirmations of
transactions and receipts at the end.

    The new PNC technology provides a little more flexibility than other
ATMs that offer Braille instructions to do the transactions, but don't
include the talking step-by-step process.

    Jeff McKinney


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