The Department of Justice is seeking public comment on its plans to require automated teller machines to be accessible to the blind.
A government board issued guidelines in late July that call for ATMs to issue audio instructions, and the department has given advance notice of its intent to update regulations regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The request for comment was issued Sept. 30; the comment period will close Jan. 28, 2005. The advance notice is the first step required to change standards for the ADA, which was passed in 1990.
Paul Beatty, an accessibility specialist for the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance (or Access) Board, said that its guidelines are minimum standards for what the department's final rules must contain. "We establish the floor. They can always require more but not less," Mr. Beatty said in an interview Thursday.
In addition to making ATMs talk to users, Mr. Beatty's office has issued guidelines on other issues, such as height requirements.
Though updating ADA regulations can be time-consuming, Nessa Feddis, the senior federal counsel for the American Bankers Association in Washington, said it would be a mistake for banks to put changing their ATMs on the "back burner."
She noted that many banks are already upgrading their machines to comply with new encryption requirements from Visa U.S.A. and MasterCard International. Ms. Feddis said it would make sense for banks to also implement designs that adhere to any new ADA rules.
"It costs a lot less if you do it all at the same time," she said.
She also suggested that banks begin complying with the Access Board's guidelines to avoid lawsuits from advocacy organizations.
Drive-up ATMs should also be accessible, since blind passengers sometimes withdraw money at drive-up windows, she said.
If advocacy groups for the disabled "understand you're making an effort to make the facilities accessible, they're far less likely to sue you," Ms. Feddis. "They'll tend to go after those who aren't doing anything."
