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More and more banks, both big and small, are mounting marketing pushes to quickly herd their customers onto the Internet. Advocates of online banking promise Web-based financial services will deliver to home users a wider array of services than are possible at most physical bank branches.
But those promised benefits have failed to materialize for the majority of disabled Americans. Take Christopher Adams, a 43-year-old legally blind resident of Fairfield, Conn., who tried to use a talking browser to bank online. "I found online banking difficult and confusing. I made mistakes moving money from one account to the other and paying bills," Adams says.
CLEARLY INADEQUATE. His frustration is shared by many in the disabled community. Nor will it likely be alleviated anytime soon. Banks have enough trouble making their online offerings accessible to those without visual or physical impairments, let alone to customers with special needs. And for complex transactions, such as placing stop-loss stock-purchase orders, the talking browser is clearly inadequate.
Unfortunately, the level of service banks provide for the disabled on the Internet is par for the course in banking in general. In fact, banks still lag behind in providing the disabled with access to older technologies, such as automated teller machines. The majority of ATMs in this country don't support equipment to help blind or otherwise physically disabled users. Some have braille interfaces, but not all blind persons can read braille.
Moreover, braille keypads and labels are static and don't offer the sequential computer-screen instructions many ATMs now incorporate to guide customers through complex transactions. As for disabled customers with restricted motion, most of them have to go to the bank itself or perform transactions on the phone. And that's no fun these days, as banks make customers wait longer and longer to get help.
COST PROHIBITIONS. Why have banks failed to sufficiently upgrade their ATM networks for the disabled? In a word, money. Each ATM costs tens of thousands of dollars to replace. "There are thousands of old ATMs in the country at thousands of banks and store locations," says a spokesperson for the American Banking Assn. "It's cost-prohibitive for all of them to be updated with new technology to service people with disabilities. Gradually, the newer machines will replace them and, of course, have access features."
That said, the banks are being prodded to make a more concerted effort to provide their services to the disabled. Of course, a spate of lawsuits and the Americans with Disabilities Act has spurred them on. And technology advances are helping the process along.
Last week in Baltimore, ATM manufacturer Diebold and the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) announced plans to jointly develop a voice-guided ATM accessible to the blind and visually impaired. The new ATM won't require additional computer programming by retailers or the ATM network. Users will be able to plug a standardized headset into the machine for complete privacy. Diebold joins competitor National Cash Register, which has offered audio-enabled ATMs since 1997.
OTHER ALTERNATIVES. A Canadian company, T-Base, has also created a call-in service called Infotouch that provides documents quickly and easily to people unable to access information through conventional methods, such as ATM. The Infotouch service can publish documents in multiple formats, including large print, audio, braille, and on computer diskette. Individual documents are published automatically from electronic masters and mailed directly to consumers within two days of the request. Canada's Royal Bank and other banking institutions use Infotouch.
And U.S. banks are working with software companies to provide voice-recognition-banking services to people with vision, speech, and hearing disabilities. The first voice-recognition-based banking system is expected to roll out in less than six months in California. Other banks are helping to develop iris-scanning software and devices to improve access to their ATMS. Such systems hopefully will also accommodate people using wheelchairs, those with learning disabilities, and those unable to use keyboards.
For their part, the banks say they're rapidly moving to comply with the ADA and implement technologies to aid the disabled. That may be, but even with this latest push, plenty of work remains to be done. The future of banking is on the Net, and the banks thus far haven't demonstrated they can help the disabled bank online effectively. As for the remediation of older technologies such as ATMs, the effort is welcome. But hearty congratulations aren't in order until every ATM in this country can handle disabled customers.
Copyright 2000, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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