SMART CARDS IN AUSTRALIA:
THE IMPACT OF SMART CARDS ON PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Prepared By
Tim Noonan
SoftSpeak Computer Services
On Behalf of
Blind Citizens Australia
With Funding from
The Commonwealth Government's
'AccessAbility Grants Program'
part of
'Networking the Nation'
Version 1.0, last updated: April 2000
Copyright (c) 2000
SoftSpeak Computer Services &
Blind Citizens Australia
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION ........1
2 WHAT IS A SMART CARD? 2
2.1 Modes of Operation 3
2.2 Smart Card Operating Systems 5
2.3 Multi Application Support 5
2.4 Smart Card Uptake Here and Abroad 6
3 POTENTIAL USES OF SMART CARDS 10
3.1 Electronic Purses 11
3.1.1 The "electronic register tape" scenario 15
3.1.2 RNIB Electronic Purse Recommendations 17
3.2 Smart Cards for Online Purchasing/Verification 20
3.3 Smart Cards for Mobile E-Commerce 22
3.4 Smart Cards and Transportation 23
3.5 Smart Cards for Security 25
3.6 Selected Smart Card Developments in Australia 26
3.6.1 Australian Banks 26
3.6.2 Telstra and Smart Cards 27
3.6.3 Government and Centrelink Developments 28
4 SMART CARDS AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES 29
4.1 Alternative Ways of Accessing Smart Card Information 30
4.1.1 Smart Cards and Point-of-Sale Terminals 31
4.1.2 Smart cards and mobile phones 32
4.1.3 Smart cards and PCs 32
4.1.4 Smart cards and Television Set-top-boxes 33
4.1.5 Smart Cards for ATMs and Information Kiosks 33
4.2 The European Saturn Project 34
4.3 PC User Profile Development in Canada 36
4.4 The Trace Center 'EZ Access' protocol 37
5 SMART CARDS AND STANDARDISATION 39
5.1 Emerging Industry Standards 39
5.1.1 Electronic Purse Standards 40
5.1.2 Global Platform 40
5.1.3 CEC Specification 40
5.2 Australia and Standards 41
5.3 European Union and Standards 42
5.3.1 Card Orientation 42
5.3.2 Storing User Interface Preferences 43
5.3.3 Differentiating smart cards by touch 43
6 SOME USEFUL REFERENCES AND RESOURCES 44
7 TERMINOLOGY, ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS 47
1 INTRODUCTION
This report explores the increasing use of smart cards and smart
card-based systems in Australia and in other countries, with a special
focus on how these developments are likely to impact on people with
disabilities and the older population.
At present the area of smart cards is undergoing particularly rapid
change and expansion. This report doesn't attempt to be comprehensive or
complete, but it does try to offer a balanced and realistic perspective
on the field, both now and in the future.
The report has been worked on progressively since the second half of
1999, but has undergone many changes due to the endless flux, mergers,
takeovers and other industry developments which typify this industry.
The eventual and widespread up-take of smart cards is no longer in
question, but the "how", "what" and "when" issues vary from one country
and situation to another. The questions are no longer "why smart cards?"
or even "whether smart cards?" but simply "when?".
The report is being produced at a time where the smart card industry is
intensely complicated and uncertain. Whereas only a year ago, it was
commonly thought that the Mondex smart card electronic purse had a major
market advantage internationally, this group now appears to be very
marginalised as a result of industry-based standardisation efforts by
most other smart card manufacturers, other than Mondex. Whereas it was
commonly understood that The Big Four (four major Australian banks) had
all signed an agreement with Mondex Australia, and would be adopting the
Mondex electronic purse system, just last year Westpac announced a
collaborative venture with ERG (a Perth-based smart card ticketing
company) which would be based around a totally incompatible purse system
called Proton, developed by Banksys in Belgium.
Already in Australia we have current trials or role-outs of six different
and quite incompatible smart card platforms, leading to increased
confusion, uncertainty and potential compatibility problems.
Although smart cards have been around for over 20 years now, they are
still often described as a technology looking for an application.
Nevertheless, there are already in excess of 15 Million smart cards in
use in Australia alone (counting GSM SIM cards and smart card-based phone
cards) and smart cards now make up 18 percent of overall plastic card
manufacture internationally.
For reasons such as these, this report doesn't attempt to do a lot of
"crystal ball" gazing, but it does draw together information from an
array of commercial and other sources to predict how such technologies
could affect us all, and in particular how they could affect people with
disabilities.
The original intent was to produce a brief report strictly focused on
disability issues alone, but with the complexity of the technology and
the array of differing approaches and applications springing up in
relation to smart cards, it was felt that the report should provide a
broad-brush review of the area and act as a simple tutorial on the smart
card subject.
The information is current as of first quarter 2000. It includes many
accessibility considerations and observations throughout each section, as
well as a more detailed section covering specific disability and
accessibility topics in greater length. Because of the crossover between
different smart card applications and uses, there is a small degree of
unavoidable overlap of information in sections of the report.
2 WHAT IS A SMART CARD?
A smart card is a plastic card usually with similar dimensions to a
standard credit card. Instead of a magnetic stripe, smart cards use an
embedded computer chip and memory to store and process information.
Depending on the particular smart card product, smart cards can hold at
least 100 or more times as much data as a mag-stripe card. For example
the latest American Express smart Blue cards contain 32 k of rewrite-able
memory.
Although in most cases a smart card is approximately the same size as a
credit card, another example of a smart card is a SIM (Subscriber
Information Module) used in GSM digital mobile phones. Original SIM cards
were credit card sized, but smaller phones now have a mini-sim which
isn't much bigger than a thumbnail. Because of the huge up-take of mobile
phones, particularly in Australia, Asia and Europe, SIM cards are
probably the largest proportion of smart cards in use today, but most
still only provide one function, though this is rapidly starting to
change.
Smart cards allow information to be stored on the card rather than on a
computer somewhere. This is an added advantage for security and allows
encryption techniques to be used in the card.
Smartcards are more durable than traditional magnetic stripe cards as the
chip cannot be affected by magnetic fields or scratches like the magnetic
stripe on existing cards can.
The term 'Chip Card' is also sometimes used when discussing smart cards.
Smart card readers can usually also write to smart cards, but in the
literature and this document, for convenience the term 'smart card
reader' is used.
2.1 Modes of Operation
There are two major interfaces used by smart cards to communicate with
smart card readers and terminals - contact and contactless. Contact
smart cards have gold or silver electrical contacts at one end, which
allow the card to be powered, read from and written to, by smart card
terminals. Some newer smart cards are contactless, meaning that they
don't need to be inserted into a card reader. Contactless smart cards
can usually be operated up to 15 or 20 cm away from the card reader
device. With contactless smart cards, the power is provided by the card
reader through induction or other electromagnetic means. Thus neither
type of smart card requires internal batteries to operate. However
battery power is likely to be required in order to have a contactless
card which operates more than 20 cm from the card reader device.
For people with disabilities, contactless and longer-distance contactless
smart cards have significant benefits and could provide interesting
applications for navigation and identification of landmarks, technical
installations etc.
At present, contact smart cards are considered to be significantly more
secure than contactless cards, and they are also somewhat less expensive
to manufacture. Some companies have developed contactless smart cards
which they believe are very secure, but this technology is relatively
young.
Transport ticketing is a common use of contactless smart cards due to the
inconvenience and significantly greater time taken to use contact cards.
Contactless cards don't even usually need to be removed from a wallet or
handbag, they automatically pay for the ticket as a barrier is walked
through.
A quite recent development, and one which is likely to lead to a major
increase in smart card uptake is the increasing availability of dual mode
cards which can work in either manner - contact or contactless, offering
the perceived safety and convenience of both technologies, depending on
the nature of the transaction.
Some smart cards may also contain a magnetic stripe, allowing them to be
used as a standard credit card/banking card, or as a smart card. The
recently released Blue American Express cards in the United States have
this design, allowing them to operate as a standard magnetic stripe-based
credit card, while also containing a unique electronic certificate,
identifying the card holder, as well as validating that the card is not a
fake. These cards are hoped to be used extensively for more secure
internet purchases. Over time the card will contain additional
applications.
2.2 Smart Card Operating Systems
Depending on the brand of card and its architecture, several smart card
operating systems now exist. The most common of these are Chipper,
Proton, MultOS and Java Card. In trial now, but not in wide usage yet,
is Microsoft's Windows for Smart Cards. MultOS, JavaCard and Windows for
Smart Cards are generally considered to be the three major emerging
multi-application smart card platforms/operating systems.
The operating system controls how information is stored on and retrieved
from the smart card, just as MS DOS or the Microsoft Windows computer
operating system controls similar facilities on a PC. Security of data,
particularly in multi-application situations is an important aspect of
the smart card operating system.
At present there is a lot of work going into developing reliable and
flexible operating systems for smart card applications, and with
Microsoft's recent entry into this area, the competition is becoming even
greater. Companies don't want to roll out a huge number of cards based
on one platform/operating system, only to find that it has little support
in one or two years time.
American Express's new smart Blue Cards are reported to have been issued
in both JavaCard and MultOS versions, but most are based on MultOS.
There has been some talk in the industry about MultOS being sold to
Microsoft, which would give Microsoft an even greater impact on the smart
card operating system arena, particularly in view of the time Microsoft
has taken to get its product to market.
2.3 Multi Application Support
One reason why smart cards have taken a long time to get established
internationally is that, until quite recently, they were unable to run
multiple applications (programs) safely and easily on a single card.
One benefit of modern smart cards is their ability to replace common
functions of several magnetic stripe cards on a single smart card. For
example, a single smart card could potentially contain one or more credit
cards, an electronic purse, a loyalty program, an electronic signature,
act as a social security benefits card, act as a library card, and so on.
This is discussed further in the following section.
For security purposes, a person's smart card might also contain a digital
representation of his or her written signature, or an electronic
signature (possibly issued by the Government), finger or thumb print
information as well as a PIN.
At present, most smart cards only contain one or two applications, but
depending on the operating system, and cooperation between vendors and
service providers, this is beginning to change. Increases in the amount
of rewrite-able memory that can be built into smart cards are now making
multi-application cards more viable and flexible.
Another commercial barrier to multi-application cards is card branding
rights. Banks and credit card companies want to be associated with their
smart card, for this reason competing applications are less likely to be
stored on a card branded by a rival vendor.
Until the issue of multiple applications on a single card is in
widespread use, it will be very difficult indeed to gain wide
user-acceptance of smart card technologies.
2.4 Smart Card Uptake Here and Abroad
Although there is a huge push from manufacturers and companies in the
smart card industry, there is less certainty or excitement in the minds
of potential users. To a large degree smart cards are still a technology
searching for an application. Many European countries may be the
exception here, but North America, Australia and even Hong Kong seem to
be resistant to the touted benefits of the technologies, particularly for
financial applications.
For new technologies to be taken up, they need to be clearly superior to
the existing ways of doing things, and have minimal disadvantages over
the status quo.
As is also the case in the US, Australia is cautious and comparatively
slow in widespread uptake of smart card technology.
Although Australia is renowned for its uptake of new technologies, we
seem to have the knack of knowing which technologies to 'back', but even
more importantly, when. For example, we were international leaders in
the uptake of fax machines, mobile phones and the internet, but haven't
rushed into fad technologies which didn't survive.
Widespread adoption of smart card technologies isn't just a financial
commitment, it is also a technology which will have profound impacts on
the economy and Australia's involvement in the community and economy. It
will change the whole culture underpinning the cash economy, something
which Australians value.
North America and Australia are much bigger users of creditcard services
than are Europe, or Asia, and we also both have well-developed
telecommunications systems and mag-stripe infrastructures (both ATM and
EFTPOS) to support the existing huge base of mag-stripe cards in use.
There is little immediate incentive for either the banking system, or the
consumer, to change.
From the banking perspective, we have an acceptably (manageable) level of
creditcard fraud, it would be very expensive to roll out smart cards and
readers for venders and banks, and the current system offers the
Government, banks and credit card issuers a "cut" of every electronic
transaction which occurs.
Furthermore, with multiple essentially incompatible systems, the
unprecedented fighting between Mastercard and Visa, the real question is
"which directions and technologies to back".
Because smart cards represent a huge paradigm shift, banks and
Governments need to carefully consider how they can assure continued or
increased profitability under a smart card-based infrastructure.
But in the year 2000, it is generally accepted that smart cards will
become an ever increasing part of our daily lives, it is just an issue of
how quickly and which domains will change over to smart cards first.
Smart cards are more likely to be widely embraced in Australia when most
of the following requirements are met:
* multi-application smart cards are the norm, rather than the exception;
* the over twenty incompatible electronic purse systems are reduced to a
few inter-compatible systems;
* when several companies have cost-effective card-readers which can read
magnetic stripe/contact/contactless cards and accept PINs for these;
* When simple-to-use multi-currency storage/conversion is available;
* When there is a higher level of confidence about the security of smart
card technologies, and increased trust in the Governments and companies
behind them. E.g. Mondex's technology is proprietary and its security is
through obscurity, not disclosure of protocols;
* When Government regulation is clearer and a better balance is met
between privacy/anonymity and regulation/auditing. For example, smart
cards in Australia were severely set back a few years ago when the
"Australia Card" debate blew up, where many Australians feared for their
anonymity and information privacy. Smart cards were seen by many to be
the ideal tool for implementing the Australia Card concept, leading to
smart cards being associated with Government data collection;
* ;When the existing technologies start comparing poorly to smart card
replacements; and
* Now that the computer millennium roll-over is behind us.
Internationally, smart cards now account for 18% of world card
production. Plastic card manufacturers produced 6.7 billion cards
worldwide in 1998, with half of the cards produced for the North American
market, according to the first annual Card Manufacturing Global Market
Survey of the International Card Manufacturers Association. The Princeton
Junction, N.J.-based trade group pegged the value of the cards sold at
$1.4 billion, with Europe representing the largest regional market at
$581 million in card purchases. Smart cards accounted for 1.2 billion
units or about 18% of the world total. Financial hologram cards made up
just more than 875 million units, according to the survey, which was
prepared by the Chicago-based accounting and consulting firm Arthur
Andersen Company.
In 1999, an estimated 250 million SIM (Subscriber Information Module)
cards for GSM mobile phones were manufactured, and this number is
expected to double this year.
Although the expected explosion of electronic purses hasn't really
happened, there are major moves in many countries to change all their
magnetic stripe-based credit cards and debit cards to chip-cards over the
next two to seven years. Japan, Korea, Spain, Mexico, Canada and other
countries all are working towards this, but Australia has not made any
significant announcements along these lines to date.
Ironically, the current chip shortage impacting all of the computer
industry is having a significant effect on smart card production
internationally, particularly for mobile phone SIM cards.
"Canadians will be using 35 million chip cards by 2004, compared with 5.1
million cards today, predicts Christie Christelis, president of Oakville,
Ontario-based Technology Surveys International Inc. While 85% of the 4.5
million smart cards issued last year in Canada were for use in payphones
or mobile phones, the major growth over the next few years will come from
credit and debit card issuers converting their magnetic-stripe cards to
chip, Christelis says. He says Canadian investments in chip card systems
over the next five years will total $500 million, including cards,
terminals, software and professional services" (Taken from "Card
Technology Daily News")
3 POTENTIAL USES OF SMART CARDS
Smart cards are seen as a replacement for the existing and ubiquitous
mag-stripe cards used in Australia. Examples of smart cards already in
wide use include Telstra's newer phone cards, some transit cards used in
Western Australia, trials of smart cards in various cities and
universities, and limited smart card roll-outs planned for some aspects
of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
Some existing and proposed uses for smart cards include:
* Alternative to, or replacement for cash - termed electronic purses;
* Replacement of magnetic stripe cards used for credit cards and debit
cards;
* Student and employee security passes to buildings and computers;
* Paying for utilities such as gas and electricity;
* Voting in elections (such as using a university-issued identity card to
vote for student council and the like);
* Electronic passports;
* train/bus/ferry tickets/passes;
* other ticketing applications such as concerts, the Olympics, etc;
* M-40 Government-funded Disability Taxi Subsidy Scheme;
* Paying for Regular and disabled car parking;
* library card;
* Loyalty and shopper discount program cards;
* Storage of personal data, e.g. medical records;
* storage of an individual's personal and biometric information such as
facial geometry, finger/thumb prints, voice patterns, identifying
characteristics, electronic signatures, written signature, and so on;
* Storage of a person's user interface preferences e.g. speech or large
print display on an ATM.
3.1 Electronic Purses
Electronic purses are being designed to gradually replace the cash
economy - notes and coins. In contrast to credit cards and EFTPOS cards,
smart card-based electronic purses will be able to support very small
transaction amounts such as 25 cents, a couple of dollars, and the like.
Thus they have interesting applications for public transport, caf‚s,
newspaper stands, taxis, parking stations, etc.
The UK Banking Code defines an electronic purse as
"Any card or function of a card which contains real value in the form
of electronic money which someone has paid for in advance, and which can
be reloaded with further funds and which can be used for a range of
purposes".
Unlike credit and debit cards - where funds are stored in a bank account
or credit account - smart card electronic purses actually store digital
cash in the memory of the smart card. The result of this difference is
that for electronic purse purchases, no telephone link needs to exist to
confirm or complete the transaction.
Electronic purses will also be extensively used to make internet
purchases, since they can both validate the user, and transfer virtual
cash from the smart card to the vendor.
In an economy which uses electronic purses, an ATM will not only issue
traditional cash, but will also allow one to transfer funds from an
account directly into a smart card containing an electronic purse.
Future mobile phones are another area where smart cards will be in
widespread use. The phone may be able to support two smart cards - one
the SIM containing the details of the user and telephone service, the
other supporting a smart card for E-Commerce facilities. Motorola phones
are now being manufactured which can accept a full-sized smart card in
addition to the SIM card. Other manufacturers have similar plans and
products on the way.
Ericsson is testing a new "wireless wallet," letting phone users pay for
goods and services on their handsets with the same chip-based payment
cards they use at physical stores.
"The wallet resembles the leather billfold consumers now use to store
their payment cards. But the Ericsson wallet has built-in smart card
readers. With the product, a phone user could shop on the Internet with
one of the many Web phones that are just now hitting the market. Then,
when it comes time to pay, the consumer would transmit the payment data
from his chip-based credit, debit or e-purse card from the wallet to his
mobile phone. He need not remove the wallet from his pocket or briefcase
because the data travels via radio waves using a short-range wireless
technology called Bluetooth". (Taken from "Card Technology Daily News")
Unlike cash, electronic purses are not cent-for-cent in value. Its
likely that an electronic purse will incur charges as does a bank card or
bank account e.g. monthly, establishment, and maybe transaction charges.
Thus most of the electronic purse benefits are actually to the providers,
not to the users.
One reason for somewhat slower up-take of electronic purses by banks is
that it is not clear to them how to maximise an income stream from the
new technologies. Banks and the major creditcard brands are also very
concerned that with the explosion of mobile E-Commerce that they will
lose branding options due to limited screen size and the move away from
graphics in systems such as WAP (Wireless Access Protocol).
The banks are also fearful of "backing the wrong horse" with the plethora
of pseudo standards and systems being trialled in the marketplace.
At present electronic purses do not constitute legal tender in Australia,
meaning that it is difficult to force a large enough number of vendors to
accept such technologies. With the move to more current legislation such
as the Electronic Financial Transactions bill in Australia, it is likely
that more widespread use of electronic purses and other 'digital cash'
technologies will occur.
Another major disadvantage of electronic purses is that it is extremely
unlikely that digital cash stored on a card will be redeemable for
traditional cash. Furthermore, it is probable that losing the card will
be the same as losing hard cash, even though the technology in many cases
would be able to recover the funds, or disable the card. As discussed
further in the section on Transport, this issue is a stumbling block to
smart card-based transportation ticketing systems in Australia.
There will be several competing purses and each will have differing
loyalty programs attached. This may result in many people having more
than one card, each with stored value, resulting in more of 'their' funds
tied up, with the banks benefiting from a bigger cash float. Based on
telephone card surveys, it is common for people to keep small amounts of
digital cash on cards for significant periods, say 10 to 25 percent of
the funds, which aren't gaining interest or reducing other debt.
According to the New South Wales Privacy Committee, research has also
shown that people spend 5 to 25 percent more using plastic money than
they would with cash, because the sense of loss is not immediate.
Electronic purses will most likely be able to be charged up from credit
cards, making them an extension of credit for small-value items as well
as larger ones. This means that people who are not good at budgeting
will actually be worse off and may get themselves much further into debt
than with the current cash economy being required for small-value
purchases like bread and milk. Loyalty and Frequent Flyer programs are
other examples where through subtle inducement, people spend more using
their credit cards than they otherwise might in using cash.
At present people who are blind or vision impaired are able (with some
obvious difficulties) to participate in the cash economy, sometimes being
able to obtain cash via EFTPOS, ATMS or bank branches. The notes are
different in length, facilitating determination of value by touch, and
coins for the most part are tactually differentiated significantly from
one another.
Smart cards in widespread use for electronic purse applications present
the possibility that blind people won't be able to transfer funds to
their cards with ease, independence or privacy. Because the advent of
electronic purses will result in 'no change' being issued following a
purchase, the process of checking one's change would no longer be
available to blind or vision-impaired customers.
Although sighted purchasers can see the display on the vendor's counter,
and have some confidence that their transaction went as expected, this
isn't currently an option for blind customers. If we examine the M-40
taxi subsidy scheme in New South Wales and other States, there is concern
that some unscrupulous taxi drivers, knowing that blind passengers are
unable to read the meter, or see what is written on taxi dockets, adjust
pricing to the driver's benefit. When cash is paid for fares, this issue
is not perceived to be nearly so common, due to the amount of change
being returned by the driver.
Similarly, banks and other providers are expected to issue portable,
low-cost card balance readers (maybe in the form of a key-ring) but the
displays on these devices are very difficult for anyone to easily read,
let alone a person with severe vision impairment. Obviously someone who
is blind will be unable to access the display.
An interesting recent development is an Australian-designed EFTPOS
terminal (which could well support smart cards) which can speak the
transaction value, and which has clear, easy to find keyboard layout and
raised symbols on buttons.
More information on access to card information is available in the
Disabilities section of this report.
3.1.1 The "electronic register tape" scenario
Al Gilman from the Trace Center and others have proposed that in point of
sale and electronic purse applications, the smart card act as the
authoritative record of the transaction particulars. It would be
interesting to know to what extent this scenario is provided for in the
CEPS (Common Electronic Purse Specification) standard which has been
developed by the majority of smart card-based electronic purse
manufacturers.
Following is an extract from a recent post by Al Gilman to the UACCESS-l
mailing list, administered by the Trace Center, titled
The 'electronic register tape' scenario
The essence of this is:
"When a smart card (representing the funds of the consumer) interacts
with a point of sale device (representing the inventory of the merchant),
the merchant's agent should be prepared to return an itemized receipt to
the consumer's agent in return for the debit authorization that the
merchant's agent receives from the consumer's agent.
Currently, information about where the money went is channelled through
the credit card company. This only contains a summary identification for
the transaction, not an itemization of the goods purchased. So it does
not replace the sales slip which is the bedrock of the retail sales
transaction, as far as maintaining fraud-free markets and adjusting
discrepancies when they occur.
The rules of engagement need to be adjusted in the consumer's favour such
that anything that can bleed you of funds can at least give you a record,
in a medium convenient to you, of what the funds went for.
The key here is actually understanding the roles in the business
transaction. The disabled interest is a footnote, although it is what
triggered the articulation of this model. All this scenario development
was triggered by an earlier discussion of cash cards on the list.
The consumer's ability to get an itemized accounting of what the money
went for should not be eroded by the migration of the funds transfer to
virtual space.
Delivering an itemized sales receipt to the smart device from which
virtual funds are obtained is readily achievable, but it may need to be
legislated to make it the norm.
The process by which the cash card informs the point of sale device that
a receipt will be required is an instance of the Alternative Interface
Access Protocol which is a concept under study in the U.S. by a Study
Group on IT Accommodation chartered by the National Committee on IT
Standards."
For more information about the Study Group, see its web sites:
* Official home page: http://www.ncits.org/study/study.htm
* Protocol related technical documents: http://www.uniac.com/
* Other related information:
http://w3.gsa.gov/web/m/cita.nsf/Portals/NCITS
3.1.2 RNIB Electronic Purse Recommendations
Following is an extract from a comprehensive RNIB publication on
electronic purses relating to accessibility: titled 'What is an
electronic purse?' from the section titled 'Recommendations'. This
publication is online at
http://www.eyecue.co.uk/eyecue/e.purse/reader/menu.html
"If electronic purses become as widely used as planned, they may become
the only acceptable way of payment for some services.
The current designs for electronic purses raise concerns about the way
elderly and disabled persons will be able to use these systems. If the
purse systems are not well designed they could exclude many potential
users.
The following recommendations address some specific problems. Our aim is
to encourage all designers to test their designs with a cross section of
potential users, which will include disabled and elderly people. Good
design for people with disabilities is frequently good design for
everyone.
Numeric and command buttons.
A standard layout for keypads is recommended. There are two common
layouts for numeric keys; the telephone layout and the calculator layout.
It is recommended that the telephone layout be used.
Screen displays.
A high contrast display with larger characters will significantly improve
legibility for most people with low vision.
A typeface with clear and easy to distinguish characters should be used,
eg. 'Screenfont', see web site www.eyecue.co.uk/tiresias.
Card Entry.
It is useful to have a funnel opening to guide the card into the reader;
this is particularly helpful for users who have low vision or hand tremor.
Larger buttons and tactual feedback.
Larger buttons which have clear visual markings and tactual feedback
should be used. Tactual indication can be provided by a gradual increase
in the force, followed by a sharp decrease in the force required to
actuate the key, and a subsequent increase in force beyond this point of
cushioning.
To help blind people, there should be a single raised dot on the number 5
key. This should be positioned so as not to reduce legibility.
Card orientation.
Blind persons, and many elderly persons, have problems in inserting the
card in the correct orientation. All electronic purse cards should
include a tactile identifier for card orientation (in accordance with
Standard EN 1332-2).
Access to terminals.
At the retailer's premises, it is important that the visual display is
positioned such that the customer can easily read it before agreeing to
the completion of the transaction. For customers with low vision, this
requires that they can get close to the high-contrast visual display.
Speech output.
The possibility of speech output for some devices should be considered.
If this is not wanted for all customers, this requirement could be coded
on the user's card (in accordance with Standard prEN 1332-4).
Braille.
In outdoor conditions, braille has limited value in cold weather since
tactual sensitivity is dramatically reduced with decreasing temperature.
The estimated number of braille readers in Europe is less than 0.02% of
the population; so although useful for some blind users, braille is not a
total solution for visually impaired users.
Screen phones.
For visually impaired persons, provision of adapted screen phones at
affordable prices is likely to be crucial if they are not to be excluded
from using electronic purses. These phones might offer other facilities
such as caller line identification and access to home shopping services.
Training.
Serious consideration should be given to training in the use of the
purses and the systems they link into; and who is responsible for
providing this training. Training schemes should include production of
clearly written instruction booklets in large print.
Keeping communications simple.
Given that retail or public transport environments tend to be bustling
and distracting places to be in, all designs should aim to make
electronic purse systems as simple to use as possible. Communication
between the devices, terminals and the user should be direct and simple.
For example, for intellectually impaired persons, it might be useful to
have a simple balance reader which shows the balance pictorially or have
that person's card specially coded to show pictorial information".
For more information refer to the publication "Access Prohibited?
Information for Designers of Public Access Terminals" which gives
detailed information on the design of public access terminals. This is
available on the world wide web at www.eyecue.co.uk/pats
3.2 Smart Cards for Online Purchasing/Verification
With the explosion of online shopping and web commerce, smart cards may
well be the answer to fraud, fear and uncertainty about the safety of
buying goods online. In Australia in particular, there is significant
fear by web users of using their credit card online, particularly for
international purchases.
From late November to the end of December,1999, America Online shoppers
spent US$2.5 billion, while Amazon.com had sales of US$650 million in the
fourth quarter of 1999 - more than its total sales during 1998.
Such figures are forcing researchers to revise their estimated online
sales figures upwards. Boston Consulting Group believes E-Commerce sales
in the US over the Christmas 2000 period will be as high as US$11 billion
- more than triple the figure for the same period last year.
In Australia, the picture is a little different. While 47% of Australian
households have a PC and 22% have Internet access, only 5% have shopped
online. A recent survey by Ernst & Young on Global Online Retailing has
found that 50% of the Australians surveyed cited fear of credit fraud as
the main reason they did not shop online.
Two big players in the smart card arena, Mondex and American Express, are
both working on technologies based on smart cards which will ensure that
people are who they claim to be, and to minimise the risk of card
duplication and fraud.
Mondex is adapting its electronic purse system to be used in online
environments, both for purchase of goods, and for recharging of cash on
the card.
In its first major alliance with an Internet player, Mondex International
says it will combine its chip-based electronic cash with the Web currency
offered by New York-based beenz.com. Smart cards carrying both the
real-world and Web-based currencies should be ready for testing by April
2000. Web merchants give consumers beenz as rewards for visiting sites,
shopping or responding to survey questions, and consumers can redeem the
points for goods online. When combined with Mondex e-cash, cardholders
will be able to download beenz from their Web account onto Mondex chip
cards, and use the points to make purchases in conventional shops and
through television set-top boxes or mobile phones.
American Express has been rolling out its smart card-based Blue Card in
the United States which acts as a regular blue (credit) card, and also
contains an electronic certificate to verify the user for online web
transactions. Future developments will result in multiple applications
being available on the American Express blue card - such as loyalty,
travel, entertainment and other yet-to-be-announced applications.
Australian companies such as KeyCorp are similarly working hard to
establish themselves and their smart card products to increase confidence
by online shoppers. By requiring the user to insert his or her smart
card into the PC to verify their identity, sellers will be able to trade
with increased confidence, fraud will be diminished and customers will
also be able to shop online with increased confidence.
With the imminent advent of set-top-boxes, interactive television-based
shopping and cable access to internet shopping malls and the like, smart
cards will be the primary vehicle for purchase of goods, as well as the
basis of access rights to other cable-based services.
Most set-top-boxes sold from now on will have a smart card in the back of
the unit which controls access to different channels and cable services,
as well as a smart card slot in the front, for use by the consumer. When
an advertisement for a product the consumer is interested in is shown,
the consumer can insert his or her card in the front of the box to
automatically receive a digital discount coupon. When they take their
smart card to the store, they can redeem the discount upon purchase.
These dual-slot boxes are likely to encourage credit card issuers and
merchants to introduce smart cards.
A broader concern is the accessibility of such online services being
provided over television sets, which may deny many people with
disabilities the touted benefits of smart card purchasing, because of the
inaccessibility of set-top-boxes to many people with disabilities.
These kinds of issues are discussed in more detail in a companion report
available online at www.bca.org.au/ecrep.htm
The Scientific Research Unit of the RNIB (Royal National Institute for
the Blind) is undertaking substantial research in the area of cable
services and use of set-top-boxes.
3.3 Smart Cards for Mobile E-Commerce
An estimated 500 million people will use their mobile phones and other
handheld devices to engage in mobile commerce by 2005, predicts
London-based research and consulting firm Ovum Ltd. in a new report. The
consumers and business people will use their cellular phones and other
devices, such as handheld computers, to log onto the Internet for a range
of services, from buying books and music to trading stock. This projected
boom will pit banks against cellular network operators and Internet
companies, such as Yahoo! and America Online, all of whom want a piece of
the action, says Duncan Brown, Ovum's director of research for North
America. "What they're fighting over is access to customers or ownership
of customers," he says."
Similar predictions of more than half the internet access devices being
non-PC devices in two to five years are also well reported in the press.
WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) is an effort to bring the internet to the
small-screen and low through-put world of mobile phones, but it is only
one of a variety of strategies for web enabling mobile technologies.
This is one area where such developments will greatly add to, rather than
detract from accessibility. This is because the size of mobile screens
means that text-only access will be commonplace, and as a result web
sites will need to be made more basic in design to accommodate online
access and as a vehicle for online purchases.
The W3C has also been working in the area of mobile access to the web,
and is now reported to be in discussions with the WAP Forum.
A brief overview of efforts to make mobile phones more accessible to
people with disabilities is discussed in the Disability Issues section of
this report.
3.4 Smart Cards and Transportation
Transport is believed to be one of the killer applications which it is
considered smart cards would be ideally suited to.
Transportation is the main application pushing the development and
widespread use of contactless smart cards - where the card can be up to
15 cm away from the card reading device. Of course the down side of
contactless cards is that the user isn't actively paying for the goods,
the funds are automatically taken from the card often without the user
even realising that the value on their card has been depleted.
Overall, however, contactless smart cards have many positive attributes
of benefit to a wide range of disabled people. These include not having
to be able to physically handle the card, not having to insert it into a
small slot, not having to worry about which way round the card needs to
go before inserting it, and not having to be able to reach the relatively
long distances often required to insert a smart card.
For transport payments to effectively be managed through smart cards,
improved integration of services (bus, train, tram, ferry, light rail,
etc) would be required.
The M-40 taxi subsidy scheme concession has been discussed many times
with respect to smart cardisation, but this isn't likely to happen
nationally until other smart card infrastructures are in place. If there
were accessible card readers, then the user would be able to verify the
fare charged to their card, something not possible for blind taxi
travellers at the moment.
In 1995 the New South Wales Privacy Committee speculated that in
transport applications it is likely that the current range of volume
purchase discounting for weekly, monthly and quarterly tickets will be
significantly reduced, since the card will be used to pay for each stage
of the journey, so the effective cost of public transport may implicitly
rise as a result of, and to pay for, the introduction of smart
cardization.
However, when Toronto-based Scotiabank announced A Combination Transit
and Loyalty Card which would cost about $2 to issue and could hold up to
48 loyalty programs, and automated ticketing, it believed this would save
an average of $15 per month in token issuing and collecting costs.
At a recent workshop on smart cards and people with disabilities
organised by People With Disabilities NSW, the concern was also expressed
that the current disability and aged travel concessions might be lost or
diminished due to the implementation of new smart card based systems.
3.5 Smart Cards for Security
Physical security to buildings, access security for computers,
verification of identity and authority, proof of ownership and a variety
of other access issues could ideally be handled through the use of smart
card technologies.
The US Department of Defence has put out a tender for identification
smart cards which is expected to lead to the issuing of upwards of 4
million cards in the first 12 months of the program. In time it is
expected that all Government employees will have an access smart card.
This card will allow access to building and rooms, to computer logons,
and will allow purchase of goods and services by Government staff.
Security is particularly suited to smart cards due to the considerable
difficulty involved in either cracking the codes stored in a smart card,
and the difficulty in duplicating the card or modifying the codes within
it.
The smart card can store personal and biometric details of its owner such
as finger prints, a representation of facial geometry, iris scan details
etc. It can also store a secure PIN.
For people with disabilities, the key concerns with use of modern
security access technologies is that they don't unintentionally lock out
disabled people from the system.
Security systems should always allow a PIN to be used, where this is
necessary for certain individuals. The system should provide several
means of verification of identity, to accommodate deformities or
attributes of individuals which don't fit the standard profiles.
Some people don't have hands, so can't provide finger prints. Others
can't reach the touch panel to register their prints. Some people have
artificial eyes, so can't provide retinal or iris scans. Some people
cannot speak, or need to use a speech synthesiser, so their voice print
would be unusable.
Modern security technologies need to incorporate a degree of flexibility,
to ensure the most secure and reliable verification across the population.
3.6 Selected Smart Card Developments in Australia
The following sub-sections describe some relatively recent developments
in Australia, as examples of local smart card uptake. Various trials and
initiatives are being considered or are in progress, however the purpose
of this section is only to provide a couple of examples.
3.6.1 Australian Banks
Until recently, it was assumed that all the major Australian banks would
be adopting the Mondex electronic purse system at some time in the
future, since the four major banks all signed up to use the Mondex system
a couple of years ago. But, since that time, Mondex has lost market
share and its perceived "lead" in the electronic purse industry.
Last year Westpac shocked the whole industry by announcing an alliance
with ERG, a Perth Company whose technology is based on Proton smart card
technology - the key competitor to Mondex (previously stated as the
chosen single electronic purse technology to be adopted by all the "big
four" Australian banks). The banks certainly haven't turned their back
on Mondex, but pretty much all players in this area now have a foot in
more than one camp, waiting to see how the electronic purse market
develops.
According to a press release in September 1999, the ANZ Bank is
partnering with ERG and Telstra to provide smart card clearance services.
Neither Telstra nor ERG have indicated interest in the Mondex electronic
purse platform, and ERG has already developed products which utilise the
Proton electronic purse system.
Because Visa is a major Olympics sponsor, the adoption of smart card
electronic purses throughout the Olympics is also complicated. Visa is
explicitly anti-Mondex, because Mondex is 51% owned by Visa's arch rival,
Mastercard. In response to Mondex's initial popularity, Visa has headed
up the CEPS system, which is inherently incompatible with Mondex.
It is still unclear just how and when the Australian banks will roll out
smart card-based electronic purses or when they will move magnetic
stripe-based credit and debit cards across to smart card platforms, but
if other countries are a gauge, the changeover from magstripe cards won't
be a long way off.
Non-banking bodies like Telstra Corporation are also exploring use of
smart cards for financial transactions, as is discussed in more detail
below. Telstra's association with ANZ is therefore interesting and
strategic.
Electronic purses are also likely to be provided as an added benefit for
smart card-based ticketing systems, and these could well adopt different
and incompatible purse systems to what the banks and others plan to make
available.
3.6.2 Telstra and Smart Cards
Telstra has been developing a new generation product originally called
the multimedia payphone. These phones are expected to be multimedia
information kiosks incorporating a touch-screen, a smart card reader,
and, as the name suggests, regular public telephone facilities. It is
anticipated that Telstra will have a clearer picture about the future
directions of this service by mid-year.
Based on the information that Telstra is a major player in the
International Chip Cards Alliance (it hosted this body's convention in
1997), its membership of MAOSCO, heavy utilisation of the Chipper smart
card platform, and more recently its interest in the MultOS operating
system and its planned partnership with ERG and ANZ, Telstra is clearly
interested in positioning itself as a significant smart card player in
Australia.
If Telstra is working to have in place an infrastructure which allows it
to offer an electronic cash implementation based on its multimedia
payphone network, then it is very important that people with disabilities
can independently access electronic cash through use of its payphones. In
view of the reticence to date with which the banks have encouraged uptake
of smart card-based electronic purses, Telstra may indeed be well placed
to achieve success in this endeavour.
3.6.3 Government and Centrelink Developments
An Australian Government-based consortium including several State
governments, local Councils and other Government Departments such as
Centrelink, carried out an investigation with the goal of establishing a
common platform/operating system which could be used by consortium
members and others as the basis for smart card applications. MultOS was
the selected operating system, and already the City of Canberra has
commenced development of several services which will utilise smart cards.
Over the last few years, Centrelink (formerly the Department of Social
Security) has considered the use of smart cards to improve the delivery
of benefits/payments and more efficient records access. Issues including
privacy and more recent uncertainties about which smart card technologies
should be considered, have lead to inaction until very recently.
Some potential uses for smart cards by Centrelink include chip-based
pension and health benefits cards, provision of an electronic purse which
could be linked to Centrelink payments or bank account funds, as a means
of identification for accessing and potentially updating personal
information held about Centrelink subscribers, and sister applications
for handling transport concessions and taxi subsidies.
4 SMART CARDS AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
People with disabilities are a significant group in our society and they
have a range of special needs. It is extremely important that smart card
systems are developed and implemented with this group's needs in mind, or
the negative social impact will be substantial and people with
disabilities will be denied participation in the economic life of their
community.
Some issues of particular significance to people with disabilities
include
* identifying a card and reliably differentiating it from other cards;
* being able to determine reliably which way to insert a contact card;
* holding, inserting and withdrawing the card;
* ability to use contactless cards to avoid problems listed above;
* how people with differing abilities can access information displayed
relating to the card - e.g. balance, transaction history, transaction
particulars;
* additional and hidden costs associated with smart card technologies
e.g. transportation costs, monthly and transaction-based costs;
* privacy concerns - user interface requirements;.
* potential for smart card technology to trigger technology and software
to operate in a mode that is more suited to their situation e.g. speech
or large print output, increased timeouts and simplified layout;
* Increased efficiency in using a smart card as a replacement for
paperwork associated with claiming medical, social security and other
reimbursements;
* Implications of loss or theft of the smart card may lead to far greater
inconvenience and affect a person's safety, since so many services could
be stored on the single card. Because travel to different locations can
be difficult for many people with disabilities, the loss of a card with
multiple applications could be very major.
In addition, a range of other social and economic issues will have a
major impact on certain people with disabilities.
As early as 1995 The New South Wales Privacy Committee produced a well
researched and provocative report on the possible social, economic, legal
and privacy implications of smart cards. This paper provides both an
optimistic and a pessimistic scenario of how smart cards might impact on
us, and even though it was prepared nearly 5 years ago, its content is
still very pertinent.
The report "Smart Cards: Big Brother's Little Helpers" can be found
online at
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/privacy/smart/download/smart.txt
4.1 Alternative Ways of Accessing Smart Card Information
There are a variety of possible ways that smart card information - such
as balances and transaction details - could be made accessible to people
who are blind or vision impaired. Some of these are discussed below.
4.1.1 Smart Cards and Point-of-Sale Terminals
Although current EFTPOS systems in Australia and the United States do not
commonly employ smart cards, this information is equally applicable to
smart card-based systems.
The following information was assembled from Card Technology Daily News
and Keynotes - a Keycorp publication to shareholders - First Quarter, 2000
New POS Terminals Aid Handicapped Users
"Sea Cliff, N.Y.-based U.S. Netcom will market a new point-of-sale
terminal the company says is easier to use for visually impaired and
physically handicapped consumers. Under terms of a multimillion-dollar
contract with Sydney, Australia-based KeyCorp, U.S. Netcom becomes the
exclusive U.S. distributor of the K23-family of terminals, to be sold
under the name IC eCommerce in the United States. The exact value of the
deal was not disclosed, but both companies say it involves the purchase
of thousands of terminals. The terminals are the first to comply fully
with the Americans with Disabilities Act, U.S. Netcom President Ronald
Katz says. Each comes with a detachable keypad, allowing wheelchair-bound
customers to place it on their laps for transactions. Also, raised
characters on each key enable blind and visually impaired users to
operate the keypad without having to ask for assistance. The terminal
also contains a speaker that broadcasts the total amount of the
transaction. IC eCommerce terminals were installed at more than 100
merchant locations, mostly on the East Coast, during the last week of
December for a pilot project."
"Keycorp has re-designed the key layout on the K23 terminal, using colour
coding, a raised dot on the five key and raised ridges on critical keys.
The PIN pad also features voice prompts to guide the user through the
process, and a large LCD screen with high contrast back lighting."
4.1.2 Smart cards and mobile phones
Because the screens of mobile phones are unusable by most blind or low
vision individuals, the use of this device for accessing smart card
details will be limited. A possible solution to this would be to
integrate phone-network-based audio IVR technology which accompanies
screen display so that a person can use their phone to check details on
their smart card. This service would have to be provided by the
telephone network, so that the mobile phone only needs to present the
audio messages via the speaker.
It is widely reported that Nokia are in the process of doing a needs
analysis towards development of a voice output and widely accessible
mobile phone. Whether this will only voice menu options or also speak
screen messages from SMS (Short Message Service), phone numbers names
etc., is not yet clear. Depending on the elaborateness of this
development effort, a wide range of facilities including smart card
accessibility may be the outcome.
Either the network level interactive voice response access to smart card
details, or the in-built voicing by the mobile phone would support a
range of people who are non-visual, and who want audio feedback of what
is appearing on their phone display when using their smart card. It
would also be beneficial for people who are undertaking eyes-busy
activities such as driving and who can't look at the phone display.
4.1.3 Smart cards and PCs
It is anticipated that most PCs sold from 2000 onwards will have either a
smart card terminal installed, or will be smart card terminal ready.
Microsoft's move into smart cards is going to strongly drive a closer
linking of smart cards and PCs - both for security purposes and for more
secure and convenient electronic commerce.
Smart Card terminals can be purchased which can be used to read and write
to smart cards, as well as presenting transaction information from
electronic purses. Although the displays (if present) on smart card
terminals are not likely to be accessible, it may well be possible for
the PC to access and present information from the smart card on the
computer screen.
What is not yet clear is to what extent security facilities on the
computer operating system (such as built in to Windows 2000) will impact
accessibility of smart card information, by denying it to screen reading
technology to ensure unauthorised access to the information doesn't occur.
4.1.4 Smart cards and Television Set-top-boxes
This is an area of significant concern for people with disabilities,
since the majority of set-top-boxes are designed at an extremely low
price point, and provide no alternative output or input options. They are
not designed with accessibility in mind, and their design generally
precludes after-market enhancement or voice output software.
Royal National Institute for the Blind and WGBH in the United States are
examining accessibility of cable TV and other interactive services.
4.1.5 Smart Cards for ATMs and Information Kiosks
In many places efforts are under way to make ATM facilities more
accessible, by providing voice output and other means of information
presentation. The Trace Center and The Productivity Works are both
developing prototypes and products for designing accessible information
kiosks.
Sun Micro Systems have been demonstrating an ATM that operates on the
Java language, and which adjusts its user interface features according to
the preferences stored on a Java ring - a wearable finger ring containing
a chip - (an alternative to a smart card).
Electronic Purses will be able to be re-charged with electronic cash via
ATMs, so instead of cash, your card will have funds stored on it, which
are transferred out of your account. Unless the ATM or information kiosk
used to transfer these funds is accessible, then it may be difficult or
impossible for some people with disabilities to obtain electronic cash
for daily use.
At present, bank branches will issue cash, but as the number of
face-to-face staff continues to diminish and branches continue closing,
the assistance of bank staff in obtaining regular and electronic cash
will become an increasing challenge.
Two research and development projects are discussed below which are
likely to lead towards access solutions for public information and cash
terminals.
4.2 The European Saturn Project
The Royal National Institute for the Blind, in collaboration with others,
undertook a major research project into this problem of accessing cash
dispensers such as ATMs. This was named the Saturn Project
Following is an extract from an RNIB publication on this work.
"When a person with a disability needs to use a cash dispenser, he or she
may meet a number of difficulties. Some of these difficulties relate to
finding the terminal or physically getting there, but many of the
problems relate to the user interface on the cash dispenser. However many
financial organizations are planning to change from magnetic stripe cards
to smart cards (also known as 'chip cards'). A few years ago a number of
organizations realised that these smart cards could potentially alleviate
many of the problems concerning the user interfaces of self-service
machines such as cash dispensers, and as a result the Saturn project was
established with the support of the European Commission.
The Saturn consortium includes major manufacturers of cash dispensers and
self-service terminals, a major manufacturer of smart cards, a
telecommunications operator, as well as organizations concerned with the
needs of people with disabilities."
Saturn is an acronym for Smart card And Terminal Usability Requirements
and Needs.
The project developed an accessible prototype automatic teller machine
which supported both contact and contactless smart cards, and
automatically presented screen information in the screen font or audio
format required by the user. The user's user interface preference was
stored on the smart card and read by the ATM.
An informative report on the findings of the Saturn project and
guidelines for good ATM design can be found at
http://www.stakes.fi/include/cases.html
A report on the Saturn study says the following about use of smart cards
for accessing cash dispensers:
"Meeting Individual Needs
To select a preferred interface, the user could simply press a button or
select from a menu on the screen; this is likely to increase the time
taken to undertake a transaction. Another possibility is to store the
user's preferences on a central computer and implement them as soon as
the PIN (personal identification number) has been entered.
However, it is possible to store the information on the customer's card.
With a magnetic stripe card there is very limited spare capacity for
storing this information (but this method has been used for storing the
user's preference for displayed language). A smart card has fewer
restrictions on storage capacity so appears to be ideal for this purpose.
The user could request a particular interface by: Filling in a form when
applying for the card at a help desk / registration station
Choosing at a cash dispenser
Many disabled users would like to be able to select and store their
preferred interface whenever they use their card at a cash dispenser. It
is essential that information is stored on a card only with the consent
of the user.
Card Insertion
Of all of the problems cash dispenser users may face, card insertion in
the correct orientation is of particular importance for people in
wheelchairs, those with Parkinson's disease and those who are blind. The
problem can be significantly alleviated by the provision of a contactless
card reader mounted under the facia. Contactless card technology is
widely used in public transport applications (eg by London Transport on
the Harrow buses and in Manchester), but the desire to retain invalid
cards has prevented the use of this approach for cash dispensers. Since
it is possible to electronically cancel contactless cards, this is no
longer a valid reason not to provide this facility."
4.3 PC User Profile Development in Canada
Researchers at the ATRC of the University of Toronto, are working to
develop a system which employs a smart card to store the specific PC
access requirements of users with disabilities who wish to use public
workstations, such as in Libraries and college campuses.
The following information was provided for inclusion by Joseph
Scheuhammer at the University of Toronto.
"When the user steps up to the station, they begin by inserting their
card. The profile is read, the station is configured using the
information in the profile, and a web browser is launched.
The information on the card describes the kinds of adaptive technologies
the user wants to use while using the station - "adaptive technologies"
include:
1. Specific applications (e.g., IBM's Home Page Reader);
2. Settings for those applications; and
3. General user interface settings (e.g., larger fonts).
There are four main disability types currently being addressed by the
system:
1. Cannot see the screen (blind);
2. Difficulty seeing the screen (poor vision or colour blind);
3. Difficulty reading (cognitive impairment); and
4. Difficulty using the keyboard/mouse (motor impairment).
For the present, these groups are mutually exclusive, although in the
future, effort will be made to lessen the exclusivity where appropriate.
Choosing one of these main types determines a cluster of other settings
relevant to that type. For example, the motor impairment profile
includes settings for using sticky keys, key repeat settings, mouse keys,
use of a trackball, and/or an onscreen keyboard. If the user indicates
that they desire a trackball or onscreen keyboard, then their settings
are made available as well."
4.4 The Trace Center 'EZ Access' protocol
This system doesn't directly affect smart cards, but it does provide a
proposed approach for making a variety of public and personal devices
accessible. This could include ATMs, information kiosks, EFTPOS
terminals, screen phones, mobile phones and smart card wallets and
balance readers.
In contrast to the concept of storing personal user interface preferences
on a smart card, this approach aims to allow anybody to walk up to any
device (without needing to insert a card containing their preferences)
and operate the device or machine in the way best suited to their
situation. It may not be ideally suited to the multiple configuration
parameters involved in the PC access scenario given above, but is likely
to work well for many public terminal situations such as ATMs.
This information was extracted and minimally edited from a post made by
Gregg Vanderheiden and recently sent to the Uaccess-l mailing list.
"EZ Access 2.0 It is a set of techniques that provides cross disability
access to a wide range of technologies including touchscreens, ATMs,
building directories, fare machines, and in the future on home appliances.
Some brief examples should give you a feel for it. The goal was to make
a robust approach that would work across disabilities but that which
would be easy for anyone to discover and learn.
For example. If you are blind you would approach the ATM, Kiosk, or Fare
machine and feel around. If there is a handset you could pick it up. If
not there would be a headphone jack - usually in a raised post to make it
easy to find. Plug in a headset. Directions would tell you where you
would find a diamond shaped button and two arrow shaped buttons. It
would also tell you that you can use these buttons to operate the entire
device. Use the arrow buttons to "look around" and the Diamond button to
activate all text on the device including labels instructions and all
displayed information as well as all the buttons and controls on the
device, which would be available in a list that you can move up and down
through using the arrow buttons. (Only the text or buttons available at
any point in time would be listed at any time)
Hitting the diamond shaped button would cause text blocks you find in the
list to be read to you. The diamond button is also used to activate
buttons you find in the list. Just move up and down the list to see or
hear what is available to a sighted person at that point. When you find
something you want to have read or a button you want to press, just press
the diamond shaped button. This approach works well even on touch
screens and devices where either the number or the meaning of the buttons
changes as you use the device".
More details on the EZ Access system are available from the Trace Center
web site as follows:
* The ms word version is
http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/ez_implementation_guide/ez_implementationv2.doc
* The text version is
http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/ez_implementation_guide/ez_implementationv2.txt
* The PDF version is
http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/ez_implementation_guide/ez_implementationv2.pdf
5 SMART CARDS AND STANDARDISATION
During recent years many bodies and organizations have attempted to
create smart card standards and forge alliances in order to strengthen
the uptake of smart card technology. Overall, the direction of smart
card development is being driven by the manufacturers and strongly
branded credit card companies.
5.1 Emerging Industry Standards
The smart card industry is primarily driven by smart card manufacturers
and the major credit card vendors. As a result, competition, not
cooperation, is often the main motive behind so-called industry standards
and forums.
A couple of the more current specifications and consortia are described
below but this list is far from exhaustive.
5.1.1 Electronic Purse Standards
At present there are over 50 different and incompatible electronic purse
implementations internationally. CEPS (Common Electronic Purse
Specification) is an attempt by Visa and other companies to develop a set
of protocols enabling various company's electronic purses to work in a
consistent and auditable manner. Over 90 percent of the smart card
electronic purse industry is said to be behind CEPS, but no products yet
exist based on the specifications. Mastercard and Mondex are not
involved in, and don't plan to support the CEPS specification, but this
decision has significantly marginalised both organizations. A little
over a year ago the Mondex electronic purse system was thought to be the
very likely market leader and was backed by most banks internationally
and in Australia.
5.1.2 Global Platform
More recently, Visa has spear-headed a multi-vendor forum called
GlobalPlatform, the cross-industry group formed by Visa International to
draft and disseminate software standards to promote multiapplication
smart card programs. Participants include American Express, Telstra
Corporation and a variety of other banks and companies.
5.1.3 CEC Specification
EMVCo, the smart card standards organization created by Europay,
MasterCard and Visa, has published a jointly-developed specification
on how smart cards can be used for secure payments over the Internet.
The CEC specification, as it is known, builds on the original smart card
EMV (Europay/MasterCard/Visa) specification agreed upon by the card
companies early last year.
The specification defines a set of requirements that ensures
interoperability for credit and debit payment applications between smart
cards and terminals on a global basis, regardless of where the card is
used.
The idea behind the CEC specification is to ensure that EMV smart cards
can be used in the virtual as well as physical world. The specification
was developed with the assistance of SETCo, the organization that manages
the secure electronic transaction (SET) protocol and leverages the open,
global standard for secure electronic commerce.
5.2 Australia and Standards
For its part, Standards Australia has for a few years been involved in a
small number of smart card efforts, mainly relating to electronic purses
and electronic passports, but these have largely been overtaken by
collaborative industry-driven standards. More recently, Standards
Australia has developed an E-Commerce team which is looking for
industry-relevant standards which may also impact smart card technologies.
Late in 1999 three Australian companies (Telstra Corporation, ANZ Bank
and Perth-based transportation ticketing company ERG) announced the
formation of a new company to centralise the clearance of smart card
payments in Australia. They also hope to promote standardisation for
smart cards in Australia, particularly focusing on multi-application
smart card implementations.
An Australian consortium formed in mid 1999 and headed by the ACT
Government examined the issue of having a single multi-application smart
card for use by a number of Australian State and City governments. A
request for information was issued in July 1999 and the group
subsequently adopted the MultOS platform for use by consortium members.
No consortium members need to adopt the recommendations of the group, but
Canberra is already in the process of developing a MultOS-based smart
card system for use in public libraries, parking stations and other areas.
5.3 European Union and Standards
As discussed earlier, the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB)
has been involved in several standards efforts which address attributes
of the physical smart card. To date there doesn't appear to be
particularly strong uptake of these standards in most countries, but this
may be due to limited awareness of RNIB's work, and recent alterations in
the EU's standards acceptance requirements.
In addition to the three standards or drafts cited below, several
recommendations/conventions are also suggested.
These include always adopting the telephone-style layout (with 1, 2 and 3
on the top row), providing a funnel-shaped opening for card insertion
slots, using contactless cards wherever possible, high contrast large
print displays, buttons with a positive response, and audio feedback of
key-presses.
The following extracts provide additional particulars of the work being
conducted by RNIB and the European Union in the area of smart cards and
electronic purse standards.
5.3.1 Card Orientation
Blind persons, and many elderly persons, have problems in inserting the
card in the correct orientation. All electronic purse cards should
include a tactile identifier for card orientation (in accordance with
standard EN 1332-2).
5.3.2 Storing User Interface Preferences
The possibility of speech output for some devices should be considered.
If this is not wanted for all customers, this requirement could be coded
on the user's card (in accordance with standard prEN 1332-4,).
5.3.3 Differentiating smart cards by touch
John Wall, President of the European Blind Union, says the following
about the importance of selecting cards by touch. The report he eludes
to is cited below.
"For a blind person, or someone suffering from impaired vision, tactile
markings are not just useful, they are essential to enable that person to
identify items by touch. On behalf of all the blind and visually impaired
people of Europe, I welcome this report.
It calls on card issuers to incorporate embossed symbols on all cards to
help people differentiate one card from another. This is absolutely
necessary when we have to deal with so many cards. It explains
appropriate ISO and CEN standards and proposes a new CEN standard. This
will meet the needs of those having to operate self-service terminals,
giving them the independence and privacy which they need and deserve.
I commend the report and congratulate its authors on a job well done.
John Wall, President, European Blind Union"
Foreword taken from Gill J M & Devine-Wright H, Selecting Cards by Touch
ISBN 1 86048 0195, March 1999, 24 pp. Online at
http://www.tiresias.org/tdiff.htm#selectingcards
6 SOME USEFUL REFERENCES AND RESOURCES
In this section some general references and starting points are listed
which in one way or another deal with the topics of smart cards,
E-Commerce and accessibility.
* Blind Citizens Australia website
The Blind Citizens Australia web site contains links to a wide range of
blindness and disability-related sites as well as containing reports and
information about accessibility issues in Australia. BCA's website is at
http://www.bca.org.au
* VIP-L e-mail discussion list
This is an Internet-based e-mail discussion list based in Australia which
is sponsored by Blind Citizens Australia and administered by Tim Noonan.
A range of topics of interest and importance to people who are blind or
vision impaired are discussed on this list. For more information about
the list, including how to subscribe, see http://www.bca.org.au/vip-l.htm
* Trace Research and Development Center
The trace Center website is one of the leading online locations for
finding information about accessibility of mainstream equipment and
software including ATMs, Information Kiosks, the World Wide Web etc. The
site is frequently updated and is an excellent starting point for
research. The Trace Center website is at http://www.trace.wisc.edu
* RNIB Scientific Research Unit
Run by Dr. John Gill, this group is involved in a variety of banking and
other accessibility efforts. A variety of excellent documents are
available from this site including a great range of articles on smart
cards and electronic purses, ATM design, design of public terminals, and
much more. The site is at www.tiresias.org/sru.htm
* Project Include
This site has a variety of excellent materials dealing with blindness,
disability and accessibility. Project Include's website is at
http://www.stakes.fi/include/
* W3C - World Wide Web Consortium
This website contains a range of reference materials on
Internet-standards, accessibility of websites as well as hosting the Web
Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The site is at http://www.w3.org The WAI
homepage is www.w3.org/wai/
* Roger Clarke's E-Commerce Pages which explain a wide range of
E-Commerce concepts and trends. These can be found at
http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/EC/
* NOIE (National Office for the Information Economy)
The NOIE website can be found at http://www.noie.gov.au
* Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission
This site contains excellent Australian web access information as well as
a lot of information about E-Commerce and other technologies impacting on
people with disabilities and older Australians. It is at
http://www.hreoc.gov.au
* Card Technology Daily News
An excellent resource for the latest news in the smart card industry.
Articles from their smart card newsletters are also made available online
a few months after their commercial release. This site is online at
http://www.cardtech.faulknergray.com/
* Leo Van Hove's online bibliography on electronic purses and smartcards
http://cfec.vub.ac.be/cfec/purses.htm
* AccessAbility Grants Information and Online Resource
This is a resource database available on the AccessAbility Website which
provides information on a wide range of issues, products and services
associated with access to online services for people with disabilities.
AccessAbility's Website is at http://www.dcita.gov.au/accessability/ This
facility
7 TERMINOLOGY, ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
This section is not meant to be comprehensive, but it should serve as a
quick guide to some of the acronyms, abbreviations and terms which are
used throughout this document. Where possible, one or more URLs are
provided to allow the reader to obtain more information on the term.
If you find a term used in the document which you think should be added
to these definitions, please send any additional or corrected terms to
the author at [log in to unmask]
Some good E-Commerce terms are explained by Roger Clarke in his webpage
titled 'Roger Clarke's EC Definitions' at:
http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/EC/ECDefns.html
ABS - Australian Bureau of Statistics
the ABS website is at http://www.abs.gov.au
ACB - American Council of the Blind
One of the two national US consumer organizations representing people who
are blind and vision impaired. ACB's website is at http://www.acb.org
AccessAbility Grants Program
A Commonwealth Government program set up to fund and administer
innovative research and development projects in the disability field and
the area of online information access.
This report and project are being funded out of AccessAbility.
ADA - Americans with Disabilities Act
API - Application Programming Interface.
Contrasting with 'user interface' an API is a specified set of commands
and formats describing how one computer program can communicate and
exchange information with another program;
ATM - Automatic Teller Machine
Machines used by banks to issue cash to customers.
BCA-Blind Citizens Australia
Australia's national organization of people who are blind and vision
impaired. BCA's major activities are advocacy, information
dissemination, peer support and advising the wider community. BCA also
carries out projects such as this Accessible E-Commerce study. BCA's
Website is found at: http://www.bca.org.au
Biometrics
The use of technologies which can 'read' and match a person's physical
characteristics in order to reliably establish a person's identity.
Examples include retinal scans, finger and thumb print scans, voice print
registration and (more recently) facial recognition;
CSIRO - Commonwealth Scientific and industrial Research Organization;
Digital Cash
One of several terms used to describe a variety of digitally-based
payment systems that can act as a partial substitute for cash.
Alternative terms include E-Cash and Electronic Cash. A broader term is
Electronic Payment Systems. Most have been developed as a means of
payment over the Internet, but digital cash isn't limited to Internet
applications, and is also commonly stored on smart-card electronic
purses. DigiCash and MiliCent are examples of Internet-based digital
cash systems. A very good and concise article titled 'The Future of
Digital Cash on the Internet' can be found at
http://www.arraydev.com/commerce/jibc/9703-02.htm
DDA - Disability Discrimination Act
Australian legislation designed to reduce barriers to people with
disabilities in Australia.
E-Cash - Electronic Cash
see Digital Cash
E-Commerce - Electronic Commerce
"The conduct of commerce in goods and services, with the assistance of
telecommunications and telecommunications-based tools." - Roger Clarke.
EFTPOS - Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale
EFTPOS is now in very common usage in supermarkets, service stations and
increasingly in taxis. It allows funds to directly be transferred from
one's bank account to the vendor. Another term used for this process is
debit card transactions. EFTPOS in Australia requires a
telecommunications connection between the vendor and the banking system.
In order to conduct an EFTPOS transaction one's magnetic stripe card is
swiped and one's PIN is entered into the EFTPOS terminal.
HREOC - Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
The Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission administers
federal legislation in the area of human rights, anti-discrimination,
social justice and privacy. This includes complaint-handling, public
inquiries, policy development and education and training. Cooperative
agreements have been made with some state governments to provide for
joint administration of state and federal anti-discrimination
legislation. HREOC has recently announced a Reference into the impacts of
E-Commerce on people with disabilities and older Australians. HREOC has
also published an application note on accessible Web design. The HREOC
website is at http://www.hreoc.gov.au
IVR - Interactive Voice Response
the term used to describe automated telephone-based information services,
such as phone banking and automated telephone bill payment services.
Magstripe card - Magnetic Stripe Card
The credit and debit cards which are in common use in Australia are
magnetic stripe cards. Because the magnetic stripe on such cards has
very limited storage capabilities, there is little if any space
available to store information in addition to the card owner's id and
pin information. In contrast, one of the advantages of smart cards is
their ability to store hundreds or thousands of times the amount of data
as can be held on a magnetic stripe card, including special requirements
and preferences of the card owner.
Mondex
A company based in England which is 51% owned by Mastercard. Mondex is
one of the better known smart card-based electronic purses. Mondex has
been selected by most Australian banks as the primary electronic purse
platform. For a comprehensive discussion and independent analysis of the
Mondex E-Cash electronic purse implementation, see 'Exploring Policy
Issues of Electronic Cash' at
http://www.fis.utoronto.ca/research/iprp/dipcii/workpap8.htm
MultOS
MultOS is a multi-application smart card operating system or platform.
It was developed by the MAOSCO Consortium which includes Keycorp,
American Express, Telstra, Fujitsu Group, Hitachi, Infineon (formerly
Siemens Semiconductors), MasterCard International, Mondex International
and Motorola.
NFB - National Federation of the Blind
One of the two national US consumer organizations representing people who
are blind and vision impaired. NFB's website is at http://www.nfb.org
Screenreader
The term used to describe software designed to "read out" (or present in
braille) the contents of a computer screen for use by a person who is
blind, vision impaired or who has a reading disability. Screenreaders
are available for MSDOS, Microsoft Windows, the Macintosh and some Unix
platforms. Screenreaders usually work hand-in-hand with a speech
synthesiser or braille display device in order to present computer
information in an accessible format. One of the challenges for
developers of screenreading software is that they often have to "guess"
what the visual information sent to the computer screen actually means,
and try and convert this into a verbal or braille format for the blind or
vision impaired computer user;
SET - Secure Electronic Transactions
A set of protocols developed by the major credit card companies and IBM
to facilitate safe transfer of credit card particulars over the Internet
and other platforms. Unlike SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Internet
connections, SET is a system involving all stages of the credit card
purchase process. However, the uptake of SET has been extremely slow and
some analysts believe that SSL may well become the de facto security
standard.
Smart card
A credit card sized plastic card with an embedded electronic circuit.
Similar to a conventional magnetic stripe card, a smart card contains an
in-built micro-processor and memory. Most smart cards communicate with a
smart card reader by means of gold or silver contacts on the card
(contacted) though some (contactless) smart cards use radio frequencies
to communicate with a card reader that is up to 15 cm away. Contactless
cards have specific applications in transport, but also lend themselves
well to users with disabilities.
SSL - Secure Socket Layer
A standard method for providing secure Internet connections for
transmission of credit card details and other sensitive information. SSL
is actually now changed to STL (Secure Transport Layer), but the name SSL
has stuck.
User Interface
The term used to describe the methods by which people and computers
interact. User interface includes the output and input formats that
programs generate and recognise. Depending on the user interface design
of a program, computer software can be easy, difficult or even impossible
for various groups of people with disabilities to access.
WAP - Wireless Access Protocol
The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is an open, global specification
that empowers mobile users with wireless devices to easily access and
interact with information and services instantly.
WAP Forum
The WAP Forum is the industry association comprising more than 200
members that has developed the de-facto world standard for wireless
information and telephony services on digital mobile phones and other
wireless terminals. The primary goal of the WAP Forum is to bring
together companies from all segments of the wireless industry value chain
to ensure product interoperability and growth of wireless market.
VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[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
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