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The National Australia Bank today announced that it is half way through its program of audio enabling its ATMs to assist blind, vision impaired or elderly customers, with over 650 machines upgraded and the remaining scheduled for completion in 2006.
Mr Graeme Innes, Deputy Disability Discrimination Commissioner, of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, has congratulated the National and said it was delivering on its commitment to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) by audio enabling its ATM network to assist blind, vision impaired or elderly customers.
“The National’s efforts in audio enabling its ATM network go a long way towards making ATMs more accessible to customers with a disability,” Mr Innes said.
“From the information that we have collected it appears that the National has led the way in the roll-out of audio-enabled ATMs.”
The machines assist blind, vision impaired or elderly customers to perform all the functions and transactions the National provides to regular customers with the added assistance of audio instructions.
The National’s Head of Channel Solutions, Mr Ean van Vuuren, said as part of the National’s Disability Action Plan we made a commitment to install ATMs with private audio jacks.
“The audio ATMs are simple to use as the voice message is transmitted privately via the customer’s own headphones, and therefore provides independence and convenience without compromising the necessary security for financial transactions,” he said.
To use the audio ATM, customers insert their headphone point into the socket located on the face of the ATMs’ upper right hand corner (near the keypad). The audio track flows through the headphones in parallel with the screen flows – transmitting the information privately via the customer’s own headphones.
The implementation of the audio ATMs followed an extensive pilot involving participation from the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind.
Other initiatives are being progressed to ensure the National’s Internet, Internet Banking, Telephone Banking and outlets meet DDA requirements.
Key activities include:
• A commitment that all new ATMs or relocated ATMs will comply with security guidelines and support access requirements. Currently, 75% of the National’s ATMs provide access for people with a range of disabilities including audio, visual aid and wheelchair access.
• Providing an ATM locator on the National’s website, which identifies which ATM’s have audio functionality enabled.
• Ensuring the National’s Internet Banking service can be used by screen readers and is compliant with relevant standards.
• Redesigning the National’s Internet site – www.nab.com.au – with enhanced accessibility including a variable font size capability for sight impaired customers.
• Completed a speech recognition trial for the ATM – Branch locator via Telephone Banking, as well as pursuing potential future deployment of speech recognition capability.
Other recent disability initiatives by the National include, being the first bank in Australia to create Braille-encoded templates to assist vision-impaired customers to complete bank withdrawal slips, deposit slips and cheques.
For further information contact:
Rose Gigliotti
Corporate Affairs Manager
National Australia Bank
Work: 03 8643 0765
Mobile: 0412 122 563
Paul Oliver
Corporate Affairs
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
Work: 02 9284 9880
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