Trace technology makes ATM access EZ for everyone

In this age of odd hours and unforeseen expenses, Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) can be lifesavers when it comes to getting quick cash.

Gregg C. Vanderheiden (18K JPG)

But sometimes the machines' technology prohibits rather than facilitates a transaction. "ATMs are not designed for the full range of users," says Gregg Vanderheiden, director of the college's Trace Research and Development Center. Some are too tall for people in wheelchairs to reach. Some have touch-screen menus visually impaired users can't see or feel. Some use auditory cues people with hearing impairments can miss, and many have buttons users with muscular disorders can't push accurately.

Trace research findings indicate that approximately one in seven people has a form of disability that affects how they use ATMs and other machines.

Researchers at Trace have developed a solution that can make ATMs and other machines accessible to everyone. The center's EZ Access interface includes features for people with low vision, blindness, reduced hearing, deafness, physical disabilities, reading problems, inability to read and more. It standardizes the method through which these people can use everything from microwave ovens and cellular telephones to ATMs.

The Trace Center's EZ Access technology adds three buttons and some software to an ATM, making it accessible to everyone. (10K JPG)

Recently Vanderheiden and researcher Chris Law debuted a prototype disability-accessible ATM at the ATM Industry Association Conference in Orlando, Florida. Modifications to an existing ATM's design are minimal, easy and inexpensive, says Vanderheiden. "The solution (at right) adds three buttons and some software to the ATM," he says. "It's possible to use only those three buttons to operate the machine, and you can use it without being able to see or read the screen."

At the conference, attendees received the technology with open arms ... and closed eyes. For their hands-on demonstration, Vanderheiden and Law asked users to cover their eyes and withdraw funds from the modified ATM. The experience helped attendees realize how difficult it is for people with disabilities to use the current machines, and how easy it can be with just a few simple changes, says Vanderheiden. "We have had people from some of the big ATM companies who say they will implement the technology in their next-generation machines," he says.

In the past, it has been challenging to convince banks, ATM manufacturers and ATM resellers the changes are necessary, Vanderheiden says. Some worried that modifying their machines would make them less attractive to and less functional for other users. Many simply resisted changing their machines or adding extra costs if they weren't required to do so. Last June, however, Wells Fargo Bank led the way when it announced it would install "talking" ATMs at 1,500 California locations, so people with sight impairments could use them. Shortly after, Citibank committed to do the same, and other banks followed suit. Now ATM-makers NCR and Diebold offer their own voice options on the machines.

Trace doesn't produce the ATM (or other products), but through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation it licenses the EZ Access techniques to their manufacturers and offers them technical assistance. "This new prototype approach holds the promise of not only providing access to current types of ATMs and kiosks, but very importantly, to the new emerging information transaction machines as well," says Vanderheiden. The prototype's next stop was Las Vegas, where Trace staff demonstrated it April 17-20 at "Kiosk Com 2000," a conference dedicated to interactive kiosks.