Sight-impairment Friendly Bank-Cards

By: A.C.

ATM ( Automated Teller Machines) machines at banks & supermarkets, are not always the easiest of machines for disabled people or indeed the blind & sight impaired community to access.

In the UK there are over 2million people who live with sight impairment or blindness, and that makes banking difficult. The Royal Bank of Scotland & Nat West have introduced a card specially designed for the blind & sight–impaired community.

The press release from RBS states:

“To address some of the common problems that blind and partially sighted customers face, the cards will:

• feature braille markings to identify which card is savings and which card is debit
• have a notch cut out on the right hand side of the card to help customers insert their card into ATMs and PIN pads correctly
• show telephone numbers where they will be most clear
• have large font on the back of the card to make the phone numbers easier to read”

The new cards have the support of the Royal National Institute of Blind People (The RNIB), who were involved with the design process. Steve Tyler, Head of Solutions, Strategy and Planning at the RNIB said:

“We are delighted to have worked with RBS on making savings and debit cards more accessible. The very basic requirement of identifying the right card and quickly determining which way the card slots in to a machine or payment system has been solved by this development. Simple as it is, creating a card with tactile indicators that identify the card type as well as the way in which it should be used, is an engineering challenge, particularly to ensure that it doesn’t disrupt machinery.”

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