STRATEGIC PARTNERS
January 30, 2002
PITTSBURGH -- Mellon Bank has equipped ATMs at 11 Mellon locations in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Harrisburg with voice-guided technology to assist visually impaired customers.
The pilot program establishes Mellon as the first major financial institution to offer voice-guided technology in Mellon's retail market area. The voice-guided feature allows visually impaired customers to insert a conventional set of audio headphones into the ATM, through which the customer hears private voice instructions on how to conduct basic ATM transactions.
"By making it easier to interact with an ATM, voice-guided technology provides an important assist to visually impaired people living independently in our community" said Dr. Richard L. Welsh, president of Pittsburgh Vision Services. "We congratulate Mellon on being the first financial institution in Pennsylvania to provide this service, and we look forward to working with Mellon on ways to make the service as responsive as possible to the needs of visually impaired customers."
Last June Mellon was named in a lawsuit filed by the National Federation of the Blind in Pennsylvania, along with PNC Bank. The NFB contended that the two banks must provide
voice-equipped ATMs to comply with federal disabilities law.
Last month a group of bankers, ATM industry professionals and blind advocacy groups met in Washington, D.C. to discuss the future of ATMs and their accessibility to the blind community. As reported on ATMmarketplace.com, Curtis Chong of the NFB said the meeting went well.
"The fact that you could get these people into the same room and not have them confront each other is a huge step forward in this business. Once you can start the dialogue going, then there's going to be some willingness to not stand hard and fast on fixed positions," Chong said.
