NORTH CANTON, Ohio-Financial institutions are in the middle of a 12-month window for complying with changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act, which Dean Stewart believes is one of the most important compliance issues facing CUs today.
In 2010, said Stewart, senior director of advanced solution product management, the government amended the now 20-year-old ADA and issued a number of new guidelines that affect financial institutions. He noted that the regs with the greatest impact on CUs (and all FIs) will be those affecting ATMs, chiefly, ensuring voice guidance for the visually impaired, that Braile signage is present at or very near the ATM, and that disabled individuals have the same level of privacy as all other users.
"This needs to be acknowledged within the credit union, and then somebody needs to have that as an assignment; to come back with a plan for ADA compliance," said Stewart.
But Stewart acknowledges that not all credit unions will have the resources necessary to quickly carry out such changes. So while he by no means advocated delaying implementation, Stewart said he hoped that regulators would "be a bit more generous in their latitude" and "have a bit more grace ... as far as what happens after March 16" of next year.
Stewart stressed, however, that excessive delays or non-compliance with new ADA regs could have dire consequences. "I don't think any CEO wants to be in the paper as the defendant in a lawsuit for discrimination," said Stewart. "That alone should be enough to think about making strides."
