It would appear that there's a bit of competition in the talking ATM
business, given that Wells Fargo announced a similar effort recently.

>
>SAPERSTEIN, GOLDSTEIN, demchak & baller
>A Professional Corporation
>1300 Clay Street, 11th Floor
>Oakland, CA  94612
>510/763-9800
>ELAINE B. FEINGOLD
>Law Office of Elaine B. Feingold
>1524 Scenic Avenue
>Berkeley, CA  94708
>510/848-8125
>
>CITIBANK
>Susan Weeks
>Media
>718/248-7580
>
>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE          CONTACT:        Leni Doyle
>       July 8, 1999
>510/763-9800
>
>
>Susan Weeks
>
>718/248-7580
>
>
>CITIBANK TAKES INITIAL STEPS TOWARDS INSTALLING
>"TALKING ATMS"
>
>
>
>Oakland, CA  July 8, 1999 - Citibank and the California Council of the
>Blind announced today that Citibank has agreed to pilot test "talking"
>automated teller machines ("ATMs") at five Citibank locations in
>California.  This initiative will place Citibank at the forefront of the
>banking industry by testing ATM machines that can be used more
>effectively by persons with vision impairments.
>
>During the pilot test, the talking ATMs will provide audible prompts to
>assist persons, who cannot read information on an ATM screen, in using
>the machine for basic transactions, such as depositing money,
>withdrawing cash, transferring funds between accounts, and obtaining
>account balance information.  The Citibank ATMs will guide the user
>through these transactions by means of a talking screen reader -
>technology that speaks audibly about what the sighted user sees on the
>screen.  Citibank's technical staff developed the method for using the
>screen reader that will be tested on the five California machines.
>
>The pilot program is scheduled to last six months.  Citibank will
>install talking ATMs at three Citibank Bay Area locations and two
>Citibank financial centers in Los Angeles by October 1, 1999.  Based on
>the results of the pilot testing, Citibank, the California Council and
>individuals with vision impairments who were involved in the discussions
>leading to today's announcement will formally discuss a plan for placing
>talking ATMs across the country.
>
>The screen reader technology to be piloted at the Citibank financial
>centers is the same technology Citibank has made available on its
>internet home banking service - Direct Access.  "We develop and
>implement technology to make the lives of our customers easier and
>banking more convenient for the communities we serve," said Ed Horowitz,
>Senior Corporate Officer of Citigroup and head of the e-Citi unit which
>developed the innovative technology.  "Adapting screen reader technology
>to ATMs is a logical evolution in our effort to work with our visually
>impaired customers."
>
>"We appreciate Citibank's willingness to work together with the blind
>community to come up with an innovative way to allow blind and low
>vision customers to use touch screens," said Catherine Skivers, the
>president of the California Council of the Blind, an affiliate of the
>American Council of the Blind, with 46 chapters statewide.  Skivers said
>she was "optimistic that the pilot test will result in a national
>agreement to install talking ATMs across the country."  Steven
>Mendelsohn, one of the participants in the discussions and a technology
>policy analyst and disability rights advocate, said, "This agreement
>holds promise as a first step toward making greater access to banking
>services a reality for people who are blind or vision impaired.  We hope
>that the success of this pilot will lead other institutions to emulate
>Citibank in making ATMs and other information terminal and transaction
>machines available to all users."
>
>The agreement announced today resulted from a collaborative effort that
>began when members of the blind community approached Citibank to discuss
>how the company's ATMs could be programmed to communicate audibly with
>blind and low vision consumers.  Lawyers for the blind community in
>these discussions were Linda M. Dardarian of the Oakland law firm of
>Saperstein, Goldstein, Demchak & Baller, Berkeley disability rights
>lawyer Elaine B. Feingold, and the Berkeley-based Disability Rights
>Education and Defense Fund.


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