I don't understand why I can buy a $10 talking watch, but it takes
thousands of dollars to equip an ATM with speech. What's the deal?
Peter
At 07:28 PM 10/7/99 -0500, Kelly Pierce wrote:
>America's first talking automatic teller machine was unveiled in San
>Fransisco last Friday. The City of San Francisco was the first
>organization in the United States to install an ATM available to the
>public. Newspaper coverage of this event is below.
>
>Wells Fargo has an out of court agreement to install talking atm's at all
>locations in California within five years. The Citibank operating
>division of the global financial concern Citigroup will start a six-month
>pilot test of talking atm's within the next few weeks. Also, federally
>funded attorneys in Pennsylvania have filed ADA suits against Philadelphia
>based Melon Bank and Pittsburgh based PNC Bank representing the National
>Federation of the Blind and four plaintiffs.
>
>The new machine and recent activity is based on a re-interpretation of the
>ADA accessibility guidelines that call for atm's to be "independently
>usable" to the blind.
>
>kelly=20
>
>
>
>
>The San Francisco Examiner=20
> =20
> ATM offers blind much-needed back talk
> Andrea Woo
> OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
> Oct. 2, 1999
> =A91999 San Francisco Examiner
> =20
> =20
> Machine speaks to sight-impaired to give them equal access to their funds
> =20
> Ron Boutte has been blind since since he was 10, but he's an old pro
> at using ATM machines. Boutte reads the Braille on the keypads and has
> memorized the sequence of buttons to press.
> =20
> But cash is not always at Boutte's fingertips. Unable to see the
> screen, the 44-year-old cannot tell if the machine is out of order or
> if an error occurs.
> =20
> But for Boutte and other blind and visually impaired residents of San
> Francisco, a solution has arrived. The first talking ATM in the nation
> is now in the city treasurer and tax collector's office in City Hall.
> =20
> It can be found by following a talking sign, an infrared control that
> tells users where they are. The voice gets clearer as the person gets
> closer to the destination.
> =20
> At the ATM, audio instructions come through a headset. A voice repeats
> which keys have been punched and will notify the customer when the
> transaction is completed or if it fails.
> =20
> "I get a lot more of a secure feeling," said Damien Pickering, who is
> blind and is communications director at the Rose Resnick Lighthouse
> for the Blind and Visually Impaired. "I can find the ATM machine and
> can use the ATM machine easily. It's getting to the point where I can
> do business like anyone else."
> =20
> The ATM was brought to City Hall under the leadership of City
> Treasurer Susan Leal, the San Francisco Credit Union and T-base
> Communications USA Inc.
> =20
> Leal's two criteria were that the machine not impose a surcharge on
> customers and that it be accessible, she said.
> =20
> Further, Leal said she hopes the new machine will serve as a model to
> other banks.
> =20
> "Some banks are under court mandates and we felt like we would be
> proactive," Leal said. "We've issued a challenge to the other banks,
> like Citibank and Wells Fargo, who have the resources to put this
> together."
> =20
> Wells Fargo had announced plans in June to provide talking ATMs, but
> were not introducing them until next year, said Wells Fargo spokesman
> Larry Haeg.
> =20
> Leal said it took about six months to formulate plans and get the ATM
> installed and working. She started by contacting the San Francisco
> Credit Union, which agreed to equip the machines with a voice and have
> no surcharge. Help also came from T-base Communications, which has
> been making talking ATMs for the Royal Bank of Canada since 1997 and
> just Tuesday unveiled the 20th one in Quebec.
> =20
> The San Francisco Credit Union has been working with the Co-op
> Network, the third largest network of credit unions in the country, to
> fund the talking ATMs. William Wolverton, the credit union's
> president, said additional hardware for each talking ATM costs $2,000.
> The software for the audio costs about $5,000 per machine.
> =20
> Wolverton said plans are in the works for three other talking ATMs in
> The City. The next one should be operational in the lobby of the San
> Francisco Credit Union on Golden Gate Avenue by the end of the year.
> And early next year, the third and fourth will be ready in the Hall of
> Justice and the new courthouse, Wolverton said. Eventually, Wolverton
> said he hopes all 3,000 ATM machines operating in the Co-op network
> will be equipped with audio.
> =20
> And that is exciting news for many visually impaired and blind.
> =20
> "I love the idea," Boutte said, who once punched up a completely
> different transaction from what he had intended because the ATM's
> Braille letters did not match with the actual keys. "We don't need
> sighted people to help us and don't have to share our check books with
> them. It's something we really need for our privacy and autonomy."
> =20
> =A91999 San Francisco Examiner Page A 1
>
>*******************************
>
>The San Fransisco Chronicle=20
> =20
> Talking ATM Makes It Easy for the Blind to Get Their Bucks
> Edward Epstein, Chronicle Staff Writer
> Saturday, October 2, 1999
> =A91999 San Francisco Chronicle
> =20
> Bill Gerrey is a noted inventor and researcher into ways of making
> life easier for the blind. But because he is blind himself, until
> yesterday he had never used a bank ATM.
> =20
> Gerrey, who works at the Smith- Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in
> San Francisco, became the first person in the United States to use a
> talking ATM when he stepped up to a machine newly installed in City
> Hall.
> =20
> ``Welcome. Please insert your card,'' said the ATM near the cashiers'
> windows in the offices of Treasurer Susan Leal.
> =20
> ``Welcome yourself. Who are you?'' asked a pleased Gerrey. The machine
> then guided Gerrey through one or two mock transactions.
> =20
> For the sighted, using ATMs is second nature. But for the
> sight-impaired, the cash machines present an insurmountable challenge,
> Gerrey and other blind people said yesterday as Leal showed off the
> precedent-setting ATM.
> =20
> Over the years, Damian Pickering of the Rose Resnick Lighthouse for
> the Blind and Visually Impaired has enlisted the aid of sighted
> friends so he could learn to use an ATM at his bank by rote. But his
> efforts were constantly thrown off track. Sometimes the bank would add
> new questions on the screen he couldn't see, or it would change the
> order of questions.
> =20
> While traditional ATMs have raised braille letters on their keys, the
> big screen remains off-limits to the blind. And the overwhelming
> majority of blind people cannot read braille anyway, said Walter Park,
> director of the Mayor's Office on Disability.
> =20
> ``Braille doesn't tell you what's on the screen or what number to
> enter,'' Leal said.
> =20
> ``This is really a milestone,'' Pickering said of the new ATM. ``What
> greater mark of equality is there than for me to have the same access
> to my own money as anyone else?''
> =20
> Leal wanted to have an ATM up and running when her office moved back
> to City Hall in January. But two obstacles stood in her way.
> =20
> She wanted an ATM that did not require users to pay a surcharge for
> using a machine that did not belong to their financial institution.
> She solved that by getting the San Francisco Federal Credit Union to
> run the ATM.
> =20
> But she also wanted one that would be accessible to the many people
> who come to her office to pay taxes and fees. That proved much harder
> to find.
> =20
> There are no machines that talk to the blind or people with reading
> disabilities in the United States, disabled activists told Leal.
> =20
> Her search led her to T-Base Communications Inc. of Ottawa, Canada.
> The firm has about 20 talking machines in place across Canada, said
> the company's co-founder, Len Fowler.
> =20
> ``We looked for prototypes, and there are no U.S.-made prototypes,''
> Leal said.
> =20
> Even though some big U.S. banks are under court order to make their
> machines accessible to the blind, none has acted so far, said Leal and
> Fowler.
> =20
> The machine in City Hall is a standard ATM, made by Diebold Inc. But
> inside is a laptop personal computer programmed with T-Base software
> and an audio hook-up tied to a speaker. There are also headsets for
> privacy.
> =20
> City Hall is a natural location for the ATM because it is home to
> almost 300 talking signs. Blind people equipped with a special
> transmitter can point it at the building's walls and know where they
> are.
> =20
> The intersections from the Resnick Lighthouse to City Hall also have
> had talking signs installed to help blind people find their way.
> =20
> =A91999 San Francisco Chronicle Page A17
>
>
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>
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