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Following an extensive pilot, the National Australia Bank today announced that it would be progressively audio-enabling its Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) network to assist blind, vision impaired or elderly customers use their ATMs.
Sixty-four of the National's ATMs will be audio enabled by November 2003 and half of the National's ATMs will be audio enabled by May 2004. In the future, all new ATMs installed by the National will be audio-enabled.
The National's Head of Distribution, Dennis Pozzobon, said audio enabling the ATMs would provide greater and easier access to banking services for customers who are blind or vision impaired.
"As part of the National's disability action plan we made a commitment to investigate the possibility of installing ATMs with private audio jacks, and I am delighted that we are now moving to the implementation phase," Mr Pozzobon said.
"The audio machines will enable customers to withdraw cash, print account balances and transfer funds. The deposit functionality is being piloted.
"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.
Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Victorian Institute of the Blind (RVIB), Dr Douglas Kent said audio enabled machines help to increase the financial independence of people who are blind or vision impaired.
"We participated in the National's pilot and the feedback from our clients was that they have the same financial services needs as people who are sighted, and therefore welcomed the opportunity to use and access banking services that were available to all National customers.
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. In the event of non-action by the customer, the audio track repeats itself.
The pilot was run on both Diebold and NCR machines and supported by RVIB and Blind Citizens Australia.
For a list of audio ATM locations, please check the ATM locator on the National's Website (www.nab.com.au)
The National Australia Bank was the first Australian bank to launch an ATM of this type.
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