The following article comes from atmmagazine.com.  It demonstrates current
attitudes in the atm and banking industries about access by the blind to
atm's.  The article rehashes the same statements, arguments, and concerns
expressed at the October 25 meeting on atm access sponsored by the
U.S. Access Board.  It is ironic that the American Banker's Association
says that account balance is not necessary for a talking atm.  it is
currently available on hundreds of Bank of America and Wells Fargo
machines and will be available on hundreds more by year end.  It is
important to realize that access gained can easily be taken away.  This
will not happen.  We are vigilant and resistant and will keep our ground.

kelly

from atmmarketplace.com


   Access For All

   by James Bickers January 16, 2001

   On Jan. 26, a select group of banking industry officials, ATM
   professionals and blind advocacy groups will come together at a
   private meeting in Washington, D.C. The meeting is being hosted by the
   American Bankers Association, and the agenda will be the ongoing
   effort to make ATMs more accessible to the blind community.

   According to Nessa Feddis, senior federal counsel for the American
   Bankers Association, roughly 30 people have been invited to the
   meeting. "ATM representatives -- the major vendors like NCR and
   Fujitsi and Triton -- E*TRADE will be there, a number of different
   bankers, ATM software makers, and a couple of ATM networks," she says.
   "And of course the blind representatives such as the National
   Federation of the Blind, and the American Council of the Blind.

   "Were trying to find out where weve got common ground, and try to work
   off that, because at this point the industry is certainly willing to
   go along with making ATMs provide some sort of voice," says Feddis.
   "There are some options, and some difficulties. For instance, you
   might not be able to easily provide account balances -- so we need to
   find out how necessary that is, given that you can currently call on
   the telephone and get your account balance."

   Banks and ATM manufacturers have been largely prompted to work on this
   issue by a handful of lawsuits filed since the Americans with
   Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted roughly 10 years ago.

   "I would love to see a good, strong direction for federal guidelines
   that are more mature than the ones that we currently have, and that
   stand a chance of superceding some of the state regulatory
   developments that have occurred in the last few years," says Ernest
   Burdette, president and CEO of Triton Systems. "For us as a
   manufacturer doing business all across the country, its a bit
   frustrating to have to deal with different requirements in different
   jurisdictions. I think it can work to the advantage of all of us."

   "Our short term hope [for this meeting] would be that we can come
   together as an industry and with members of the blind community to
   develop a set of operating standards that can accommodate the needs of
   the blind, but do so in a way that is economically viable," according
   to Tim Walker, assistant counsel for E*TRADE Access, the ATM-operating
   subsidiary of E*TRADE Bank. "That involves regulatory questions, but
   primarily technology -- fundamentally, its a technology problem.

   "E*TRADE Access is committed to providing fair and equal access to
   everybody," Walker says, "but we need to be able to do it in such a
   way that it works over the complicated network structure of ATMs. The
   ATM network infrastructure has been in place for a very long time, and
   a lot of it is not exactly cutting-edge technology. The fact is, most
   ATMs in the field are not modern PCs -- they are much less
   sophisticated.

   "The hope is that were going to get our engineers together at this
   meeting -- were sending our tech guys. This isnt about getting the
   lobbyists together, as much as it is getting the engineers together.
   Obviously the blind groups are interested in having this as quickly as
   possible. We want it as quickly as possible too, but within the
   practical realities of the world in which we operate."

   Curtis Chong is director of technology for the National Federation of
   the Blind, an organization which has been active in this fight. He is
   guardedly optimistic about the meeting.

   "First of all, I would hope that whoever was there representing the
   bankers would be in a position to make commitments that they would
   honor," says Chong. "You need some assurances that the people you are
   talking to are not there just to explore what youre thinking, but are
   there to make a commitment they can follow through on. If they cant
   make that commitment, what value is there in the discussion?

   "ATMs should be made accessible, and that should be affordable. I
   would add one qualification: we learned through our experiences with
   the Diebold corporation that much of the solution that the industry
   had adopted, as a sort of first stab at addressing this problem, was
   one which ultimately would prove difficult to implement and costly to
   build." (Diebold was one of the defendants in a lawsuit brought by the
   NFB in May of last year.)

   Chong feels that early efforts at establishing "talking ATMs" were not
   as successful as they could have been, chiefly because the developers
   werent fully considering who their audience was.

   "When the first talking ATMs were developed, they used human speech,"
   says Chong. "Somebody had to record scripts for each and every screen
   on the machine. We have now begun to talk with people about the
   concept of using synthetic speech instead, something which blind
   people are used to. Now, a sighted person who is not used to
   listening, will listen to synthetic speech and will say, this is
   terrible. But we have to remember who we are targeting."

   One of the biggest hurdles that the industry will face is that of
   retrofitting. Making sure that newly manufactured machines have
   accessibility features is one thing; but modifying the thousands upon
   thousands of existing ATMs will most likely be a logistical, technical
   and financial nightmare.

   "From an industry perspective, retrofitting is the 800-pound gorilla,"
   says Walker. "And a lot of that gets into legal complexities. The
   proposal that was put forth by the federal access board was a little
   too broad sweeping for the industrys taste. The goals are admirable,
   and we want to achieve that goal, but its a question of how to achieve
   that goal in a practical fashion."

   "For us a manufacturer, its logistically simpler to think of using
   technology to improve our products and make them more accessible,"
   says Burdette. "In fact, thats a key part of some products well be
   announcing later this year. So Id favor that approach. But having said
   that, there are a lot of existing machines, probably 50,000 of our
   machines worldwide -- and if you look at the other manufacturers, that
   represents a lot of installations. But the cost of making
   improvements, once a machine is already installed, is greatly
   magnified. So it becomes an economic issue. The point is, if you take
   a certain number of dollars that can be justified to make products
   more accessible, youre going to get more bang for your buck by
   applying those dollars to new products."

   "I think some retrofitting is in order," according to Chong. "How
   much, would have to be negotiated. Zero is not an acceptable option.
   Part of the problem is that theres got to be some talking. If you
   talk, maybe you can arrive at a retrofitting schedule that everybody
   can agree to."

   According to Chong, another worrisome point is the fact that most of
   the emphasis is being placed on making traditional ATMs accessible. He
   feels that developers of next-generation ATMs, the much-anticipated
   machines which will allow everything from Internet access to stock
   trading, should focus on making those machines accessible from the
   very beginning.

   "Somethings got to change," he says. "The architecture theyre
   currently using is not workable in the long run. We cannot limit
   ourselves to thinking of the traditional ATM, which is what all the
   fuss has been about. ATMs are clearly going to get smarter. Theyre
   building all these new things, but are only giving thought to how to
   make the traditional ATM accessible. They have to give thought to
   those things now, not later when somebody sues them."

   "One of the big issues is the effect on existing ATMs and how that
   goes forward," says Feddis. "But also, were trying to look down the
   road so that as new products develop, they are developed with blind
   users in mind. Its easier when youre designing new products to put in
   voice rather than trying to retrofit. So were trying to reach an
   agreement on the immediate problem, but also going ahead."

   Nobody on either side of this issue expects quick and easy answers.
   But the ABA-sponsored meeting looks to be one more step in the
   direction of fair access for all users.

   "When you look at it from a consumer standpoint, weve been waiting
   around for ten years or so since the ADA was passed," says Chong. "And
   were growing tired of waiting. Will something good come out of the
   meeting? I sure hope it does."


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