STRATEGIC PARTNERS
Australia was the latest stop for an NCR concept ATM loaded with features designed to improve accessibility for those with disabilities. Two Australian banks recently introduced ATMs equipped with audio leadthrough technology to assist visually impaired users.
April 8, 2002
SYDNEY -- Australia was the latest stop for NCR's concept ATM loaded with features designed to improve accessibility for those with disabilities. The manufacturer continues to collect opinion from all corners of the globe in an effort to find the options most relevant to users.
Among features highlighted at the demonstration in Sydney were mobile phone access and speech synthesis technology to guide transactions for sight-impaired customers, low-height keyboards designed for wheelchair users, large navigational buttons for people with limited dexterity and textured symbols to indicate different service points.
The prototype was initially launched in Canada in August 2001, with focus groups there testing some of the 57 features. (See related story Focus on accessibility)
Some features deemed unhelpful in that pilot that have since been removed include hot air jets at the card reader and raised ridges called leader lines, which purportedly guided people around the machine.
Peter Frielick, vice president of NCR's Financial Solutions division, South Pacific, said banks are under continual pressure to improve customer service, and accessible ATM technology is one way of doing so.
"It will allow greater accessibility to people with whatever type of disability they may have, whether partially sighted, wheel-chair based, temporarily disabled from a sporting accident or totally blind," he said.
The accessible ATM's features would also boost banking services to Australia's aging customers -- the average life expectancy being 79 years. On a global scale, more than 380 million consumers are over 65, according to NCR.
"As people get older, sight goes and hearing goes. These are loyal customers for the banks and banks want to … provide good access to the banking services," Frielick said.
While audio-enabled ATMs utilizing headsets were released in the Australian market earlier this year, mobile telephone lead-through technology -- by which consumers could use mobile phones to conduct transactions at ATMs -- was sparking the most interest from the banking community because it would enable those with visual impairments and other disabilities to use the audio services more discreetly, Frielick said.
It would also remove the problem of carrying around headsets to use with audio-enabled ATMs, he said.
Hypothetically, a sight-impaired customer who had applied for the mobile service through his bank would insert his card and enter his PIN at the ATM; the transaction process would then be connected to the phone. He could then listen to options and prompts over the phone while appearing to use the ATM in a normal manner.
Despite strong interest in this feature, Frielick said the feature most likely to be implemented next in the real world is the wheelchair-enabled access ATM, with a dual keyboard placed at a lower height for easier reach on freestanding machines.
Time to market for any of the features has yet to be determined. Frielick said each feature would require further development in consultation with focus groups, as well as certification by the various standards bodies worldwide.
"We have to work to ensure that anything we do will meet or set the standards," he said. "Generally the process stretches out, but I think it is important to have these consultations and make sure that the process is followed rather than to introduce something that unilaterally doesn't fit the requirements."
Installment costs of individual features was not available, however Frielick said accessible ATM prices would be comparable with current market rates. Typically, ATMs range from $AUS10,000 to $AUS50,000.
"We don't expect to see huge incremental changes in our cost range, otherwise it would be prohibitive," he said.
Frielick said improving personalization services and access using the ATM channel was commanding the largest chunk of the $US 300 million budget NCR commits annually to research and development.
NCR customer Westpac in March introduced ATMs with audio-assisted cash withdrawal and balance inquiry capabilities, following the lead of rival National Australia Bank, which did so in February.
National Australia Bank launched Australia's first audio-enabled machines based on the Windows NT platform in a joint venture with its ATM supplier, Diebold. According to an NAB spokesperson, the bank intends to install nine more voice-enabled machines this year. The spokesperson said all newly installed ATMs would be voice-enabled from January 2003.
Westpac will install "talking" ATMs in nine locations in Sydney and Melbourne by the end of April 2002, with three already in operation in Sydney and Melbourne.
According to a Westpac spokesperson, the company has spent the past 12 months developing best practice standards and guidelines with interest groups representing the senior citizen community and those with sight, physical and intellectual impairments.
Free headsets are available at branches where the audio-enabled machines are located, or customers can provide their own. Further functionality such as deposit capabilities will be delivered in phase two of the project within 6-12 months, the spokesperson said.
The audio-enabled software runs on a Windows NT platform and NCR's APTRA software.
