From the Jacksonville, Florida Times Union


   Monday, December 11, 2000
   Story last updated at 6:35 p.m. on Sunday, December 10, 2000

   Bank of America helps vision-impaired with new ATMs

   By Simon Barker-Benfield
   Times-Union business writer

   To help the vision-impaired, Bank of America has installed two talking
   ATMs in Jacksonville, part of a program to place 2,500 enhanced
   machines in Florida and California.

   The idea is to make it easier for vision-impaired users to withdraw
   cash, make deposits and perform other banking chores.

   The two Jacksonville offices that have the modified ATM machines are
   at 2709 Monument Road and 50 N. Laura St., on the outside wall of the
   Bank of America tower.

   The ATMs have audio jacks in the top right corner of the machines that
   deliver spoken instructions privately to protect the security of blind
   and low-vision users.

   "The machine tells them what is on the screen and prompts them for the
   next entry," said Doug Hall, chairman of the access committee of the
   Florida Council of the Blind in Daytona Beach, who has been working
   with the bank on the talking ATM project.

   Customers provide their own earphones, which are also available from
   staff inside the branch.

   "The bank provides them free to customers," said Hall.

   "Bank of America plans on installing between 50 and 100 and will
   install them between now and next spring," said Hall. "We are
   thrilled."

   Cost of modifying the equipment to help the blind is $4,000 to $8,000
   each, said Amanda Malcolm, a BofA spokeswoman.

   The program is the result of an agreement that Bank of America reached
   earlier this year with a California advocacy group, the California
   Council of the Blind and several blind individuals.

   "Bank of America has an excellent reputation for hiring blind people,"
   said Hall, who himself is blind.

   The California machines "have been a great success and have placed
   Bank of America in the forefront of financial institutions in
   providing access to the blind community," said Lainey Feingold and
   Linda Dardarian, lawyers for the California Council of the Blind, in a
   statement.

   Other Florida cities which are the first to receive the talking ATMs
   under the three-year program are Cocoa Beach, Coconut Creek, Fort
   Lauderdale, Miami, Ocala, Orlando, St. Petersburg and Tampa.

   BofA customers can call
   1-800-299-2265, the main BofA customer service number.


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