Americas First Talking ATM

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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