PITTSBURGH – A legally blind man who filed a flurry of suits over the ATM provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act over the past few weeks followed up with three more this week, including one naming USX FCU as defendant.
Robert Jahoda claims the owners of the ATMs have violated provisions of the law that went into effect March 15 by failing to make all of their ATMs accessible to the visually impaired.
Jahoda, who is legally blind, said he has somebody help him around to the different ATMs and will continue to monitor area machines to ensure they are ADA-compliant.
The non-compliance, claims Jahoda, “threatens blind people with the loss of their private banking information. Blind people who wish to use certain of Defendant’s ATMs have no choice but to repeatedly reveal their private PINs to others to complete an ATM banking transaction.”
The ADA delineates specific guidelines for ATM owners to make their cash machines accessible to the visually impaired, such as making them speech enabled, including tactile (raised) controls for touch and providing Braille instructions for initiating the speech mode.
Jahoda has filed similar suits against Century Heritage FCU, Mars Bank, Dollar Bank and several other Pittsburgh-area institutions.
