Why do drive-thru bank autotellers have braille signs?

Answer 1

Drive-up ATM buttons are marked with braille because federal regulations require it. To be specific, section 4.34.4 of the ADA Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities (Appendix to Part 1191, 36 CFR Chapter XI, issued pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990) says, "Instructions and all information for use [of an automated teller machine] shall be made accessible to and independently usable by persons with vision impairments." Drive-up ATMs, unlike the walk-up variety, don't need to be wheelchair accessible, but the rules make no exception regarding accessibility by the blind.

You're now thinking: boy, those federal bureaucrats sure are stupid. Don't they realize a blind person isn't going to be able to drive to a drive-up ATM? Cecil reserves judgment on the stupidity question, but even if the feds weren't smart enough to notice this little problem on their own, there were plenty of poeple who pointed it out for them before the rule was finalized. The American Bankers Association, for one, asked that drive-up machines be exempt from the visually-impaired requirement, arguing that a blind person using a drive-up ATM would have to be a passenger and that the driver of the vehicle could help with the transaction.

No dice, said the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, reasoning that driver assistance "would not allow the [blind] individual to use the ATM independently." This may sound like one of those absurd points of principle, but ATM manufacturers say a fair number of blind people do take cabs to drive-up ATMs, and nobody wants to ask a total stranger to help with a financial transaction.

Your question does point to a more serious problem, which other readers have also raised: how the hell is a blind person supposed to use any kind of ATM? Whether the keypad numbers are identified with braille or not, there isn't any braille translation of the on-screen instructions, without which the machine is useless. Maybe, you're thinking, the problem isn't the brainless bureaucrats, it's the brainless (or cynical) bankers and ATM builders, who figure a pretense of accessibility will get them off the hook.

But that isn't it either. At the time the accessibility rules were written, and to a great extent still today, there was no agreement on the best way to make ATMs accessible to the blind. More than 50 ideas have been proposed, including a "talking machine," detailed braille instructions, an automated "bank-by-phone" setup with a telephone handset and a keypad, and so on. (Sample problem: if you use a "voice guided" ATM, how do you keep others from overhearing?) Another difficulty was retrofitting the thousands of machines already installed.

The bankers and ATM builders argued that the best thing to do was leave the federal rules vague until the industry figured out a practical approach. The not-entirely-satisfactory solution in the interim has been to (1) mark ATM keypads, input and output slots, etc., with braille, and (2) send braille ATM instruction brochures or audio cassettes to blind bank patrons requesting them. The theory is that while ATM operation varies from machine to machine, people conduct most of their transactions at just a few locations, the operating sequences for which they can memorize. The drawback of this approach is that you have to know that the special instructions are available and you can only use the machines you have instructions for.

Happily, the banks and ATM builders have been reasonably diligent in trying to come up with more accessible equipment, some of which is starting to show up in the marketplace now. About time, say some advocacy groups. "We don't want to see information technology [e.g., ATMs] become the new curb," says Elga Joffee of the American Foundation for the Blind. "There's certainly no reason to squelch evolving technology. I just wish they'd hurry up and evolve it."

Answer 2

Well, yankfan1226, this caused by a phenomena sometimes called 'groupthink.'
What that means is sometimes a person or a small group of people have an idea that they think is pretty cool.
Maybe they want to try to help the handicapped, for instance.
So they push for law that they hope will aid & assist handicapped people, like the blind. Then the government starts to try to make it better, so they will look real cool to the voters.
Then they will give some government bureaucracy a mandate
to oversee the regulation of the law. From there it goes downhill, with various idiots being allowed to tell everyone else how to implement the new law. Now, granted, some times it works okay, but usually some of the idiots start trying to expand their power & authority, by doing stupid things like requiring banks to put up ALL their signs in Braille, regardless of the fact that, generally speaking, the blind are not allowed to drive.
So that's how your bank came to have Braille signs at the drive-thru, which BTW, you & all the rest of the bank's customers have to pay for.

Answer 3

Nothing prevents someone from walking up to a drive-thru ATM. I've seen people drive up to these, get out, walk around, do their business, get back in the car and drive off. Ergo, it doesn't strain the imagination too much to see a blind person using such a device sans the automobile. One can only hope other folks would be courteous and wait patiently for them to finish their business.

Answer 4

By law all ATMs have to have Braille on them. It wouldn't be cost effective to create non-Braille ATMs for drive thrus.

Answer 5

Because Steve Wonder wants his money

Answer 6

Manufacturer makes them all the same to save money. SMART!

Answer 7

I would say the obvious, for blind drivers, but that most likely isn't right huh? :)

Answer 8

For the blind.