Blind and visually impaired Bank of America Corp. customers now have full access to the Charlotte, N.C.-based financial institution’s ATM network. The bank announced March 31 it has completed the installation of voice-enabled technology on the bank’s 18,262 machines, a process that took a decade to complete.
Voice-enabled technology, available in Spanish and English, makes it easier for blind and visually impaired individuals to deposit cash and checks, withdraw funds and perform other ATM transactions, Rob Aulebach, BofA ATM channel management executive, said in a statement.
The bank owns 13,800 full-function intelligent deposit ATMs and 4,462 cash dispensers. Bank of America operates the nation’s largest bank-owned ATM network.
The bank installed audio jacks that deliver spoken instructions through headsets customers may bring themselves or the bank can provide, says Jeff Thom, volunteer president of the California Council of the Blind, which is based in Sacramento, Calif. “We cannot track the numbers of blind and visually impaired [individuals] who use the machines, but anecdotal evidence shows the blind and visually impaired prefer using ATMs like sight-seeing customers,” he says.
The conversion resulted from a collaborative effort BofA and the council started nearly 15 years ago, Thom says. “We persuaded Bank of America about the significance of the problem, and we worked together,” he says.
Bank of America rolled out its first ATMs with voice-enabled technology in California and Florida in 2000, says Don Vecchiarello, a BofA spokesperson.
