I don't understand why I can buy a $10 talking watch, but it takes
thousands of dollars to equip an ATM with speech. What's the deal?

Peter

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