Cash Machines and the Partially Sighted
Listener Chris Cooke writes, "As more and more banks close and we rely constantly on Cash Machines (ATMs), the visually impaired have many problems. Each and every ATM is different in lay-out and offers various options shown on a screen, which obviously is hard to use if you can't see it. It must be a nightmare."
Is it? We're looking at the issue. Do get in touch if you've experience of this issue - particularly if you are partially sighted and find using a cash machine difficult.
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Even for fully sighted people, the screens can sometimes be a nightmare. Some of the colour ones in particular don't cope very well in strong sunlight, and even worse are monochrome (i.e. green) screens with software designed for colour screens.
Additionally, one bank's ATMs have an incredibly slow card acceptance / rejection mechanism - you put your card in the slot and watch as it takes about 5 seconds to swallow (then another 5 seconds at the end of the transaction as the machine spits it out).
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I'm not particularly short sighted and have no difficulty with cash machines. What I do have considerable difficulty with however is this blog, on which the print is extremely small so I have to peer at the screen.
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My brother has severe sight problems and finds it extremely difficult to tap in the numbers. Trying to navigate the keyboard exposes him to the danger of someone overseeing his pin number. There should be some other means by which he can safely access his money.
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With regard to your comments I agree with Chris Vallance. I am totally blind and I can't see the prompts on the screen although I can manage the buttons but I cannot access a cash point without assistance. Fortunately I can manage the link system in my local post office which has been reprieved.
Jenny Hodkinson
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My husband, who has macular degeneration, complains that there is insufficient contrast on the screens of both cash machines and chip and pin terminals. Very few have black on white displays and they are often located in brightly lit environments making it impossible for those with poor sight to decipher the instructions.
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Idontcareanymore. Use Firefox as a browser and press ctrl and + together will increase font size. (ctrl and - smaller). Pity ATM's don't have a similar facility. Mind you once the screens get scratched even that would not help.
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This is particularly frustrating to me, in a modern age technology should be an enabler but ATM's are behind the times and inaccessible. I'm severely visually impaired and although I have limited sight I am registered blind. Needing to plan ahead and be organised is a vital, particularly when it comes to having cash. ATM's are not a daily convenience that so many take for granted if you can't fall-back on them if you need cash in an emergency. To use a cash machine I would (to get close enough to the screen to see it) literally need to 'put my head into the hole in the wall'. It sounds funny written down but is of course not practical in many circumstances when ATM's are at waist height and at awkward angles. This says nothing of the embarrassment and feeling self-conscious as the queue builds and watches suspiciously behind you in a public place.
Worse still is the appalling and inexcusable discrimination I, as a disabled person, have faced when I've gone into my bank to get served at the counter. This remember is a bank I've been a member of (when it was a building society and now a very insignificant and much poorer share holder) for 40 years who wants to access my money. The poor customer service and sarcastic comments I've endured are totally unacceptable from staff who should know better how to serve their diverse range of customers. Comments such as 'is the cash machine not working?' and an attitude that suggests simply dealing with cash withdrawals is beneath them is not the behaviour that reflects good customer service and indeed I believe it is deliberately intended to discourage you from every daring to ask for your cash ever again.
As banks work hard to encourage you to use their least operating cost services such as the internet, ATM's and telephone banking they would do well to pay as much attention to the customers they are discriminating against by not providing accessible services and systems. Banks should be trying to attract new customers and catering for anyone who has a disability. The Government's vision of equality for disabled people by 2025 in this context seems as far off as ever.
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My sight has gone from partially sighted level to registered blind in the last few years, and I have gradually stopped using ATMs. There are about 2 million blind and partially sighted people in the country, and the banks must be losing a lot of business because of this problem.
No doubt it is possible to learn how one particular machine works and with some canny guesswork, get through some transactions on an ATM. But if you go to a different machine, all that is likely to be in vain because the layout or functions are likely to be different.
Scandinavia, I understand, has talking ATMs, to which you attach your own set of headphones for the sake of privacy and hygiene.
Not everyone can easily use synthetic speech, I know, and there is also a lot that could be done to make ATMs more tactile and give them better colour contrasts. An agreed standard layout would also be good, at least for the basic functions.
Meanwhile, thank goodness for chip and pin cashback at the supermarket. It's a great deal simpler, safer and warmer than standing in the middle of the street grappling with an ATM.
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I have recently noticed a lot of ATMs have a standard audio jack built in to them so that the user can listen to instructions and information. I assume these were introduced to help visually impaired people. It's possible that these aren't commonly available in the UK but I'm sure I've seen them in Belgium, where I live at the moment.
The other great thing about ATMs in Belgium is that they automatically display the appropriate language for the user based on a setting stored on the card's chip. If consistency of interface is important is should be fairly simple for UK banks to offer an industry-wide standard layout for visually impaired users based on a preference read from the chip on their card.
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Further to KeepSmilingYorkshire's comments, I utterly sympathise, but on my wife's behalf. She is also registered blind, but has some vision; she too has her head virtually in the 'hole in the wall' when using a cash machine, and struggles to see the screen; she too has to take the sarcastic comments from people who assume that because you look OK, you are, and because she refuses to carry a white stick because of the stigma she feels will follow.
There should be the ability to enlarge the font on the cash machines, improve the contrast, and/or have voice prompts when buttons are pressed. Of course the majority are catered for, but the minority, small as they may be, surely should be considered.
Come on banks, sort it out.
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As a registered blind person with some residual vision I find accessing ATMs very difficult, I have to rely on a sighted person to do this for me. Problems are with reading the screens with different lay outs, this is also true for Point of sale PIN machines. A standardisation of use procedure and hardware would be good. A blind person is not even aware of which way to put the card in; a simple nick in one end would help with orientation.
As a student of visual impairment, 14 years ago, moves were afoot to install a speak output software to ATM's along with a earphone socket so blind people could plug in their own earphone and be guided in the operation of the ATM by speech.
As a rehabilitation officer for VI people, accessing your blog to add my comments has been extremely difficult compared to accessing an ATM is monumental!!!
Please contact me if you would like any professional advice.
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There is a European standard that will allow a person with a smartcard (it can be a contact card or a contactless card like Oyster) to set the size of font, colour combinations, extend timeouts etc. It is EN 1332-4. It was developed two years ago but, as yet, there are very few organisations which have used it.
It is being considered for public library terminals.
Modern TVs can adjust brightness dependent on ambient light. The same technology is required for ATMs.
Standardizing the layout of function keys is very difficult. Nobody wants to change. In Norway they run along the bottom of the numeric keys. In the UK they run down the right hand side. Some include a Help key others only have Exit, Cancel, Enter.
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And another thing.....
.....if they're over the other side of the road, how do they get across?
Yes, there are red pimple sloping pavements, but now, here, in Rugby, I can point to such crossings with NO pedestrian lights or sound control at all.
You check it's safe to cross (there's hugh traffic noise) by.....sight.
(Try crossing onto the traffic island at the beginning of Bilton Road. Traffic out of LAwford Road must be judged by SIGHT, I swear! This crossing, itself, has no lights of any sort!!!)
Plus, in many places the 'Red - Green' man opposite, big and bright, is replaced by a much smaller box on the traffic lights post.
Dangerous, y'know, for everyone, 'cos we're used to 'Check it's Green Man, check traffic, and Go', but now we can't even necessarily see the much smaller Green Man, when others are trying to cross too.
Should we go when they do?
Again, dangerous. What if it's amber gambler ambler crossing?
There are lots and lots of examples here in Rugby, Warwickshire, to the shame of the Tory Cabinet on Warwickshire County Council
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I have a condition called Nystagmus that means that, although I can get by in most things, reading small screens etc is particularly difficult.
I find the newer colour screens harder to read than the older monochrome (green) ones as the contrast is not as good (I much prefer light text on dark backgrounds), though some banks' machines are much better than others. I have learnt the layout of my banks machines so I can use them without having to stick my head in the wall, however, other banks are a different matter. A standard layout would help consiferably.
What annoys me even more than cash machines are the chip-and-pin card readers. The LCD display on some of these are so small that I have to bend right down in order to use them of which I am very self concious about. I do wonder what they must think when I pay for petrol at one of our local garages when I have to do this (my wife is the one that drives).
I could also go pn about mobile phones, LCD computer displays but I'll leave that for now.
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Bank branch closures present a host of challenges for the for the visually impaired.
However, Mr Cooke's solution regarding cash access via ATMs for the blind or those with substantially diminshed eyesight seems desensitized at best, daft at worst.
Most people are aware of the basic safeguards for ATM usage, "be aware of your immediate surroundings and bystanders as you complete your transaction."
Unless the security issue was addressed, an audio-assisted ATM machine would probably present an increased danger to blind or partially sighted users much like the scene in the Steve Martin film, LA Story.
Two queues formed at an ATM, one a line of citizens withdrawing money, the other a line of robbers stealing the money as soon as it has left the machine. “Hi, my name is Bob and I’ll be your robber today.” Martin, very nonchalantly, hands Bob the money and walks on, continuing his conversation with his girlfriend. A powerful scene; In the space of a few seconds he has communicated the level of crime in the city, and the average person’s totally desensitized attitude towards it.
The widespread usage of braille keypads and displays for secure ATMs seems to me to be a far more sensible solution.
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I have partial sight problems, though nowhere near as severe as some of the correspondants here. With me it's a question of contrast and it can be very difficult to make out screens of all types in daylight (sunny or not). This includes ATMs. PIN machines (indoors with bright store lighting), mobile phone displays, digital cameras, PDAs and other devices. I suspect there's no easy answer for some of theses devices. However, there's one that would be so easy to fix - the background coliur of a web page. If I could change to white typeface on a black background (rather than the default black on white), that would be an enormous help. A lot of websites now allow you to increase the font size - why not this very simple change too?
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