PHILADELPHIA -- Advocates for the blind in Pennsylvania yesterday sued Mellon Bank and PNC Bank, contending that the banks must provide
voice-equipped automatic teller machines to comply with federal disabilities law, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Courts in Philadelphia against Mellon, and in Pittsburgh against PNC, by the National Federation of the Blind of Pennsylvania and individual federation members who are customers of the banks.
"The talking ATM technology is available, and we think the banks should provide them for their blind customers," said Theodore Young, owner of a Glenside computer company, president of the Pennsylvania Federation, and a blind customer of Mellon Bank.
Young said the two banks were targeted in the suit because both are large statewide banks likely to have significant numbers of blind customers.
Although most banks now have ATM machines with Braille raised-dot coding along the keys for blind users, Young said, only 15 percent of the blind are literate in Braille. Young said even those who are Braille-literate, as he is, are not helped when the bank changes the on-screen message or options on the ATM.
The lawsuit, filed under the Americans With Disabilities Act, asks the court to find the banks in violation of the federal law and order them to install talking ATM technology.
Spokesmen for Mellon and PNC said yesterday that they were not permitted to comment on pending litigation.
John Hall, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association, a Washington-based industry group, said an association task force worked with disabilities groups at the time the federal law took effect in 1992 and approved accommodations for the blind such as Braille directions and bank-sponsored training for the blind on using ATM machines.
Voice-equipped ATMs were discounted as an option at the time, Hall said, because of security concerns when the ATM voice announces personal financial information about the blind customer.
Thomas H. Earle, a lawyer with the Disabilities Law Project in Center City who filed the suit for the blind federation, acknowledged that the talking bank technology was new but noted that Royal Bank of Canada had begun installing such machines in its banks.
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