News

Bill in Congress would mandate blind-accessible interfaces on all kiosks

The Technology Bill of Rights for the Blind, if enacted, would make new technology a must for all self-service units.

February 8, 2010

A new bill introduced in the United States House of Representatives may dramatically alter the functionality of self-service kiosk interfaces.

The bill, currently sitting in committee, would mandate that all self-service kiosks have user interfaces that are designed to be accessible and usable by blind people. Called the Technology Bill of Rights for the Blind, it also would apply to consumer electronics, home appliances and electronic office technology.

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While at least one kiosk industry analyst is skeptical such a bill will ever make it out of the House, especially with mid-term elections approaching, the National Federation of the Blind plans to throw all of its not-inconsiderable political resources behind the initiative.

KIOSK Information Systems' Craig Keefner, a kiosk industry insider for more than two decades, says that from the standpoint of just looking at the odds, he doesn't see much chance of the bill passing congress, especially in an election cycle.

Given that it would affect not just kiosk manufacturers and deployers but makers of home appliances and consumer electronics, the bill would likely face opposition from several industries and could potentially be widely felt and expensive – and controversial.

But the measure comes down to equal rights and equal access, according to the National Federation of the Blind.

"First and foremost, it's an equal rights issue, an equal ability to participate in society issue," Federation spokesman Chris Danielsen said. "We're committed to pushing for this because we feel like the only way we feel this is going to happen across the board is if there is legislation and regulations in place to make it happen."

And Danielsen says it actually wouldn't be that difficult for touchscreen kiosks to be made blind-accessible – the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch already have applications making their touchscreens blind-accessible, and the upcoming iPad is supposed to have the same application. (The application provides a voice function that identifies the icon being touched so the user knows to double tap there to activate the icon's functionality, Danielsen says.)

The bill was introduced Jan. 27 by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL). A call to Schakowsky's office for comment was not returned.

Government kiosks already are supposed to be accessible, after Congress' 1998 amendment of the Rehabilitation Act to require federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Today, federally deployed kiosks are supposed to be what is called 508-compliant, after Section 508 of the Act. (Danielsen says he's heard of or run across Amtrak ticketing kiosks that are supposed to be 508-compliant but aren't, which illustrates why it's important for the new measure to have a strong enforcement component.)

So the precedent is out there to do this, even if it wouldn't necessarily be easy, says another industry insider, Janet Webster, who is a consultant for Creative Solutions Consulting and president of the Self-Service and Kiosk Association.

It's only likely that more and more business entities that use kiosk technology, like airlines, are going to start using fewer and fewer people, at least to handle tasks like checking in, Danielsen says. (This comes as budget airline Jetstar has recently announced plans to go to 100 percent self-check-in.) When that happens, Danielsen says, it's (a) going to be a waste of resources to have to have an extra human attendant there to help blind people check in, and (b) going to be discriminatory to have technology that expedites the boarding process only for sighted people.