It should be noted that Bank of America and Wells Fargo have each
deployed thousands of talking ATM's in the streets of America.  It is not
a future promise, it is a demonstrated commitment to access.  Other tier
one banks, including Citibank, Fleet Boston financial, and Bank One have
each deployed many hundreds of talking ATM's.  Unfortunately, though, the
rest of the industry has been slow in following the lead of the big
banks.

Kelly

    CardLine

Friday, November 07, 2003

    MORE STATES LIKELY TO SUE OVER ATM ACCESS

    Major bank ATM deployers such as Bank of America Corp. and Wells
Fargo & Co. have promised to make hundreds of their ATMs voice-activated
for access by the visually impaired in the next few years. But advocates
for the blind want the process speeded up and predict that deployers
will face a flurry of lawsuits in the coming year. Daniel Goldstein, an
attorney for Brown, Goldstein and Levy LLC, told ATM deployers last week
at Thomson Media's ATM & Debit Forum in New Orleans that deployers of
both bank and nonbank machines should expect more lawsuits like the one
the Massachusetts attorney general's office and the National Federation
of the Blind filed last July against Menlo Park, Calif.-based E*Trade
Financial Inc.'s ATM independent sales organization division. Goldstein,
who represents the federation, says up to 40 state attorneys general may
sue ATM deployers to comply with state public-accommodation laws. "We
are going to start having states as co-plaintiffs," he says. ATMs
already fall under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, which
requires access to key public services for disabled individuals. There
currently are no specific regulations on how ATMs should comply,
although some have been proposed.


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