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EFTA says proposed ATM regulations won't make life easier for disabled

February 27, 2002

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HERNDON, Va. -- The Electronic Funds Transfer Association said that a proposal aimed at increasing handicapped accessibility to ATM machines may actually have the opposite effect.

The comments came in testimony before the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board regarding proposed changes in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Proposed changes to the ADA will be so technically difficult to implement that they will result in burdensome costs to the electronic-payments industry, said H. Kurt Helwig, executive director of EFTA.

"If banks, ATM owners and ATM networks are forced to implement these changes as discussed, the result will be closure of ATMs that do not handle enough transactions to justify the cost," Helwig said. "The net result will be less ATM accessibility for disabled Americans, not more."

Helwig estimated that the cost to retrofit an existing ATM with the technology required to meet the proposed regulations, including audio-capability, would be $10,000 per ATM.

EFTA assisted the federal government in drafting the original ADA standards for ATMs, Helwig said. "The problem in legislating technology, as these proposals do, is that you lose the flexibility to adopt new technology when it becomes available in subsequent years."