News

Board gives ADA guidelines, adds requirement for audio ATMs

October 3, 2004

The U.S. Access Board on July 26 released a set of revised guidelines for the Americans with Disabilities Act - including a new requirement for audio-enabled ATMs.

Marsha Mazz, senior accessibility specialist for the Access Board, told attendees at an ATM seminar in Washington D.C. that the new guidelines "can be used as guidance where they go beyond the current standards …. They enhance and support the existing standards."

Not everyone is happy with the new guidelines, though.

Curtis Chong of the National Federation of the Blind and Daniel Goldstein, a partner in the law firm that is assisting the NFB in a legal campaign to ensure that technology is usable by the blind, indicated that the NFB would consider litigation to advance its cause. Some of the nation's largest banks, including FleetBoston Financial and PNC Bank, introduced audio enabled ATMs when threatened with legal action.

Goldstein called the new guidelines "a giant distraction." The current regulation, which calls for the blind to be able to make independent use of facilities such as ATMs, is "perfectly adequate," he said.

"If accessibility works, then you're not going to have blind people saying 'this needs to work a different way,'" he said. "A new standard will hurt the financial services industry and ultimately will hurt the blind. A more prescriptive requirement is guaranteed to become obsolete as technology progresses."

Getting more guidance

Yet some banks are seeking further clarification on issues - such as how many ATMs at sites with multiple machines will need to be voice enabled - before proceeding with broad rollouts of the technology.

Responding to

Stay within the lines Visit the U.S. Access Board's Web site for a copy of the latest ADA and ABA guidelines.

questions from the audience at the ATM seminar, Mazz said one ATM per location would be required to "speak." However, some attendees wondered whether a branch would be considered a single location - if machines were in drive-up lanes as well as inside the building. "If the machines are serving different populations, then both will need audio," Mazz opined.

MB Financial Bank added audio capability to its ATMs during a recent Triple DES upgrade, but Michael Espinosa, the bank's ATM coordinator, said MB Financial does not plan to activate the feature until it gets more guidance from the DOJ.

Mazz predicted that it would be "a minimum of two years" before the DOJ will sign off on standards based on the Access Board guidelines.

The DOJ could decide that if existing ATMs meet current standards, they do not need to comply with new standards until a new machine is installed. It would be more likely to make such decisions in areas like height and reach rather than audio capability, Mazz said.

"The DOJ can say that ATMs that comply with current regulations won't have to comply with the new ones - but they can't say that ATMs that don't comply with current regulations won't have to," Goldstein said.