Article

Diebold, NFB work together to promote low-end, voice-enabled ATMs

What could have been a grueling court battle between a major ATM manufacturer and a leading advocacy group for the visually impaired has ended in an admirable partnership.

April 11, 2002 by

What could have been a grueling court battle between a major ATM manufacturer and a leading advocacy group for the visually impaired has ended in an admirable partnership

The National Federation of the Blind dropped its lawsuit against North Canton, Ohio-based Diebold Inc. in October, agreeing to work with the company to bring voice-enabled technology to its entire ATM product line and upgrade current offerings. A pilot program will begin in spring 2001 and deployment of new text-to-speech ATMs is scheduled later that year.

"At the highest levels of both organizations, there was a very strong commitment to turn what could have been an adversarial situation into a very strong cooperation," said Al Looney, director of product planning and management for Diebold. "What we've accomplished very much reflects the vision of Wally O'Dell, our CEO, and Dr. Marc Maurer, the president of the NFB."

Since the early '90s, Diebold has provided voice guidance on its ix family of ATMs, a high-end walk-up and drive-through machine. That option has not been available on Diebold's Cash Source Plus series, a low-end retail model.

It was the Cash Source Plus ATMs at Washington, D.C., Rite Aid stores that led to the NFB lawsuit against Diebold and Rite Aid Corp. last May. The NFB charged that Diebold and Rite Aid violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, arguing that the Braille pads available on some of the machines and text-on-screen instructions were not accommodating to the blind.

The Disability Rights Council of Greater Washington, an NFB affiliate, and several individuals joined the litigation. The same parties filed a second suit against Chevy Chase Bank, noting that the bank's 800 ATMs were not accessible to the blind because the machines use text-on-screen instructions to guide transactions.

While the NFB excused Rite Aid along with Diebold, its suit against Chase still stands. Each entity involved has a different responsibility, said James Gashel, director of governmental affairs for the NFB. Diebold, he said, has lived up to its responsibility.

"It really wasn't what you would call a settlement," Gashel explained. "They just stepped to the plate and said, `We've done wrong, we'll do right.' "

NFB representatives stood side-by-side with Diebold employees at the BAI Retail Delivery conference in New Orleans in November, demonstrating the future of Diebold's voice-enabled products.

"We think it's not only important for Diebold to show the machine, but for us to explain its value,"Gashel said. "We have a true partnership."

Appearances like these also help to emphasize the relationship between the blind and the private sector, said Betty Zabrowski, director of special programs for the NFB.

"I think some of the banking industry thinks that this is just litigation and it's being stuffed down their throats," she said.

Out with the old

Voice applications that are now available on ATMs rely on pre-recorded WAV files: a scripted dialogue of ATM transactions voiced by an actor or actress. The recordings are saved in the machine and the entire message must be re-recorded whenever a change is made to the application or the transaction sequence.

"From an operational, administrative aspect, it's fairly cumbersome," Looney said. "But it results in a very high quality and good customer experience. That's been the real emphasis for most of the installations that have been done to date."

Text-to-speech technology relies on synthetic speech with a voice created by a computer chip, eliminating the need for voice recordings used in high-end ATMs. The technology allows voice-enabled transactions on less-expensive ATMs.

To use the machines, a visually impaired user plugs headphones into the unit, enabling private transactions.

"Nobody has to record the messages. It's simply anything that prints to that screen and is a text file goes also to the speech card and makes it come out in forward, ordinary speech," Gashel said. "I read the newspaper with this kind of speech over the telephone, for example, so we're very used to this."

Let your fingers do the walking

The new Cash Source keypad has raised numbers and the same button configuration as a touchtone telephone. Users must learn the functions of each key by memorizing the functions and numbers.

"You'll see these machines all over. This will become the standard -- I have no question about it,"Gashel said. "Of course it's useful for blind people, but there are millions of people with learning disabilities, dyslexia, they don't read very well. They will find this extremely useful."

The future

Now that text-to-speech functionality is possible for ATMs, other electronic self-service devices can't be far behind, according to the NFB.

"I think in the broader perspective, you're going to see this same type of technology in all sorts of kiosks because a kiosk is basically a computer," Gashel said. "If you can make this (ATM) talk, you can make a kiosk talk."

Some kiosk companies are already investigating the possibilities of voice-enabled transactions,Zabrowski said. But the NFB is making it clear that the touchscreens commonly found on kiosks make using the units difficult for those with limited sight..

"Our position is, it's better to put in a keypad," Zabrowski said. "There has been some speech output experimental technology developed, but it's difficult for blind people to use because you've got that flat screen."