Dear yusuf,
Here in Chicago, our vicug is hip deep in banking access, which is why I
am knowledgeable enough to answer your questions. Unlike in most
countries, the United States does not have banks that are present in many
communities in most states throughout the country. Currently, our large
banks are regional in nature, typically serving a particular part of the
country. Many in the banking industry believe that in the next 20 years,
banks will consolidate and we will have very large institutions operating
in all 50 states, like we have today with the consolidation of retail
stores with most people shopping at large national chains with locations
throughout the country. The largest bank serving Boston and the
northeast united States is Fleet Boston financial. Fleet provides
Braille statements, talking ATM's, and its web site meets priority One
and Two of the Web Accessibility Guidelines of the World Wide Web
consortium. By October 1, 2003, about half of the bank's ATM locations
will be accessible with a talking ATM. This access is a result of a
legal settlement that was reached with the blind community last year.
You can read the settlement and obtain a list of talking ATM's at:
http://www.dlc-ma.org
You can also find talking atm locations at the highly accessible Fleet
site at:
http://www.fleet.com
The part of the Americans with Disabilities Act that would apply to bank
statements is Section 36.303 of title III of the ADA Accessibility
Guidelines. this section requires that communications with people with
disabilities need to be effective. The guidelines do not specify which
formats under which circumstances are effective. Further no court,
including both district and appeals courts, has ruled in with its
analysis of the regulation. Our interpretation is that one test of
effectiveness is that the medium and the manner of the communication need
to be appropriate to the message involved. We believed it could be
successfully argued that a bank statement with multiple tables, columns
of information, and much discrete numeric data needs to be in a medium
that allows for review of discrete parts of the document for such tasks
as account reconciliation.
While you theoretically could file an ADA complaint or even a lawsuit
about this, why do so when there is a bank offering total banking access?
the Fleet folks are highly accessible to blind customers and will welcome
your business.
Kelly
----- Original Message -----
From: "Yusuf Osman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 8:25 AM
Subject: US banks
Hi all, I recently emailed Boston Savings Bank and they told me that they
did not provide statements in Braille. So, I have a couple of questions.
1. Should they provide statements in Braille under the ADA and is this
some
thing that I should insist upon?
2. What other banks can people suggest who will have branches in Boston
and
prefferably in other parts of the US that I might open an accout with? (I
would like internet banking, telephone banking and Braille statements)
Thanks for any help
yusuf
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[log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply type
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